Lawmakers have been trying to convince the naub they are willing to compromise. They return to capitol hill today. Everything should be on the table. Bring entitlement reform into the conversation. A group of Corporate Executives are calling on congress to rise above partisan politics to try to find some sort of a solution. We have a lot to talk about with gleg brown and well start that in just a moment, but first over to andrew. Finance ministers are trying to unfreeze the second bailout package for greece, but first they must agree on how to cut massive debt to a more sustainable level. Well head to london for details on that. And playing down a deal talk, tom joyce saying his countrys currently if talks with at least two firms on a possible sale of its largest business unit. But would only pursue a deal if it created value to shareholders and clients. And mexicos anticorruption body says it has found no irregularities in its probe of permits given to walmart. Two audits still under way. You are remember the New York Times reported walmart wribed local officials so it could open stores more rapidly. Mr. Kernen, welcome back. Thanks. Was i out . You were. Friday doesnt count. Happy thanksgiving. How about that. Thank you. Yeah, friday, nothing the mar cut was up, thin trading, but down today. Even though these guys are meeting again. In a sign of the slow pace, Senior Administration official said president obama and congressional leaders are not expected to reconvene this week. This is so the staff of both sides can continue to organize and work through the differences. And what is not a surprise at all, mr. Obama instead will probably hit the road this week to give speeches. Xwitner is supposed to be coming up with the details. Aides said mr. Obama will hit the road to mobilize public support. Just like the last, same speeches over and over. You saw Warren Buffett this morning. Some interesting points. He had an alternative minimum tax he had been talking about for the really wealthy. 30 or something. Anybody from 1 to 10 million. Also talked a little bit about raising the same thing hes been saying all along. He added that when it comes to who should be paying the higher taxes, he wants the threshold to be 500,000. And you see Steven Rattner on on talking about Capital Gains, deductions and things youve talked about a lot. Time for the Global Markets report. Ross westgate totally still confuse aed about thanksgiving and pilgrims. What was all the hoopla about . You celebrate boxing or something, dont you . Like we lost a great boxer. Is that what you celebrate . What is boxing day . Boxing day, the day of a christmas. You wrap all your presents in boxes . I think its something to do with all the presents. Im not quite sure. Yeah, put them in boxes. Maybe. So you ignored our thanksgiving. But feeling okay again . Yeah. You know, its okay. Its all right. Its gone. Now we can concentrate on the run up to christmas. And how much shopping we have to do. A lot of red behind you. We had a good week last week. While you were celebrating thanksgiving, european stocks did exceedingly well. In fact take a look at the exhave a dax, up 5 . Ftse up nearly 4 in the last week on top of pretty good gains for the u. S. Markets as you know between 3 and 4 , as well. So no surprise perhaps today that were a little bit weaker on the back of those gains. 8 2 just about decliners outpacing advancers. This is how it translates. Ftse 100 down half a percent. Xetra dax up a quarter. Ibex down about half of 1 . A number of things going on in politics as ever. We had Regional Elections in spain. Yields you can see slightly higher, but still well below 6 . Now, these Regional Elections fairly important because we know catalonia has been pushing on on independence. Now, it looks less likely well get that referendum, but not because people in catalonia are any less eager on a separatist movement. Just that they didnt vote for the main guy who is proposing it. They voted for Competitor Party which is makes it slightly harder in the short term for them possibly to get a referendum going. So eases the pressure in the short term but means there is still a longer term problem there. Catalonia is one of those regions that still has very large deficits, as well. So the politics in spain slightly skewed as they will be, but not so much pressure on rajoy at the moment. Unlikely to ask for assistance in the short term. We also have another Euro Group Meeting take, back in brussels, yes, i know, we seem to have one every week. They may come up with a long term Financing Deal for greece. Finally talking about Debt Forgiveness in greece which is what we all know has got to happen. Whether it can happen before the german elections in the fall next year is a mute point. Anyway, thats where we stand. Fairly down beat for equities and yields a little bit mixed. Back to you. All right. Thank you very much. Lets get back to the fiscal cliff. Weve been talking about the issues of taxes. As we mentioned, Warren Buffett calling for a minimum tax for the wealthy. He starts with suppose that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. This is a good one, he says, im in it and i think you should be, too. Would your reply possibility be it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain youre saying were going to make. Ifs taxes are too high, id rather leave the money in my savings account earning a quarter of 1 . Only a Grover Norquist imagination does such a response exist. Foos what he thinks should be done in washington, he says he supports president obamas proposal to eliminate the bush tax cuts for high income taxpayers. However, he says he prefers a cut off points somewhere above 250,000, maybe 500 thud or so. Additionally, he says we need congress right new to enact a minimum tax on high incomes. Buffett is suggests 20 between 1 million and 10 million and 30 on amounts above that and thats something he had laid out before. The real definition of the buffett rule. I always thought he was uncomfortable about the way the buffett rule was constructed and felt uncomfortable about saying something about it. Because remember, he never really spoke openly about it, he would intimate that 250 might not be his number. The buffett rule is 30 . But then hes also talking about the 500. But thats not the buffett rule. But if youre doing tax reform, then youre not going up anyway. I think the main point hes saying is forget about the larger reforms p. Maybe well get withere, maybe wont, but put that in place now. I dont think its fair to say hes not in favor of tax reform. Hes saying hopefully we get there, but enact this now and deal with Everything Else later. I can pick it out if we need to. Hes not in the house. Regardless of what he decides, its meaningless. Lets bring in our guest host, greg brown, chairman and ceo of Motorola Solutions and member of fix the debt. Org. You have said this is something we shouldnt do, go over the cliff, but you also think well get it resolved. What makes you so optimistic . I think both parties are going through the normal political calculus and game of chicken, if you will. Ive spent a lot of time with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I think there is universal recognition we have to resolve it. Theres sonl so many levers you can pull and buttons you can push. So i think theres a rick nation tax revenues need to be higher. Theres recognition that across the board sequester cuts is a mistake. So i think well get it done. I dont know what to make of no meetings this week, but i dont gets a concerned about that. I think there will political posturing on both sides. It seems there is a growing block, something pointed out in Morning Money this morning about how there is a growing liberal block that would just as soon see us go over the cliff if it means theyre not going to get the revenue increases theyre looking for and theyre looking at higher marginal tax rates. Not some higher revenue number. It theyre not getting that, not willing to sign off on that, if it means youll be making these cuts to some of the entitlement program, they would just as soon go over the cliff. I hear you. And i think that its kind of popular to point out the sharp differences. I think theres more and more common ground. Even the president talks about willingness to do entitlement reform. He threw out the 1. 6 trillion. If you take that as a data point and reference where he was with boehner in august of last year, he was at 800 billion, are those roughly the goal posts for a tax resolution and remediation somewhere between the two . My view probably. But the whole question is whether they can ever get to doing it with loophole cutting or whether they do it with its all about the marginal rate stuff. Hell talk about marginal rates. Once again well hear about that. And i understand you can continue to put the house in sort of the obstructionist corner and call them tea party and theyre at 8 now. You might be able to drive the Approval Rating down to 1 . But if we do go over the cliff, no ones going to remember the names of any of these house guys. Theyll remember barack obama. I dont understand how maybe this is just where everyone will be shocked and all of a sudden theyll meet somewhere oond hell say fine, as long as you raise revenues. But i dont see it that way. Where are you on the numbers some. I think 250,000 is too low. I think 500,000 or a million is more in order. The administrations consistently talked about the ultra wealthy and the millionaires. I think the notion me personally of millionaires paying more is fine. I think if its done in the tone of constructive collaboration and everybody picks up an ore and rose for rez lose im fine. And where would you be on Capital Gains and dividends . Thats a little bit stickier, but to your earlier point, around your buffett example, can Capital Gains go up a little bit and dividends . Probably. Do i think it has a Material Impact on capital deployment and investment, probably not. I think, joe, your point on the marginal tax rate, i think that is the key issue on the tax side. Buffett talks about no one makes decisions based on tax rate. I guarantee you some of what were seeing in the market right now has to do with Capital Gains rates. Thats also part of the problem with the probably all of us are considering at some point. So youll see some near term selling based on but that is near term stuff based on the idea that taxes are changing and that weve never figured out exactly where theyll be. I dont know whether 28 versus 15 or 20 causes capital to become less available. What rattner didnt pick up, though, was the idea that taxes are going up on Capital Gains anyway because of the obamacare. So i dont know if he sees 28 including the 3. 8 or but at the end of the day, it has to be fiscal cliff resolution and absolutely comprehensive tax reform sometime in 2013, lowering the corporate rate, broadening the base. How do you force tax reform when the fiscal cliff was supposed to be the gun at everybodys head . If we say never mind, how do you actually force it in the new year . I think that first of all in terms of the fiscal cliff, its got to be a framework deal. Youre not going to get legislation in a lame duck. So calculate what the tax revenue number needs to be. Take the president s and you get a deal. If theres a tram work 4 trillion deal over ten year, legislation can be codified and enacted after the fact that solidifies that, then youve bridged comprehensive tax reform. I think the keys are revenue neutrality, broadening the base, eliminating the loopholes, the devils in the details. But i think theres also recognition that corporate comprehensive tax reform needs to occur. Both sides of the aisle wanted to wait until the election is over. Its over. We have to tackle is. But now were waiting again until we get closer to the next election. No, we cant wait. Becky, you know we have the highest Corporate Tax rate in the world. You can only wait so long. Consumers are borrowing again. I think theyre pretty healthy. Corporations are very healthy from a Balance Sheet perspective. The first thing in the conversations with senior government officials is the fiscal cliff. So we have a tendency to forget the Global Implications and that many people look for the u. S. To get its house in order, not only from a domestic Economic Policy standpoint, but from a Foreign Affairs standpoint. They say it would be better to go over it than kick the can. Now they say with have to do infrastructure, investment, but their main thesis was we got to do these progrowth tax reforms, take these steps to do these things. Im not sure theyre bringing rates down theyre talking about tax reforms. Big tax reform. Dont just we need big tax reform. Coming up, rining up holiday. Dana telsey in the only time youll see her on tv this christmas season, probably not true. She spent all weekend canvassing stores. Shell bring us her take on the americans consumer. But first the average age of this band is older than the supreme court. The Rolling Stones mashing their 50th anniversary with a concert this london last night. The band performed in front of an audience of 20,000 fans. Hits including i want to be your m man. The stones will play one more gig in london on thursday before heading to the u. S. To play brooklyn and newark next month. 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. Part of a whole new line of tablets from dell. Its changing the conversation. We have the results from the First Official weekend of Holiday Shopping. Court a courtney this, was a big week end. What fiscal cliff . I know were talking about it, but according to the National Retail federation, 139 Million Consumers shopped this weekend. 40 of it was on dllineonline. And todays cyber deals are expected to continue to drive online sales. Retailers have held back special products and prices to gain wallet share in todays shopping events and does expect the momentum to continue. Online 18 higher on thanksgiving. Black friday saw more than a billion dollars in online sales, up 26 from last year. And marks the heaviest spend day online so far in 2012. 44 of retailers will offer Free Shipping up from just 12 last year as that addon moves from being an incentive to being a requirement. And while its back to work for many, 4 said they will shop in the morning. Adobe has thes most bullish forecast projecting the biggest 2k5 day of the season for web buying. Bringing in 4550 in more sales. Com score says amazon, walmart, best buy, target and aem rounpp rounded out to the five on friday. Mobile shopping expected to see expo thnen mobile shopping expected to see expo thnetial growth. And they have the cyber monday ads all over the place. Hard to get on the web and not see Something Like this. Okay. Thank you, courtney. And joining us for talk more, dana telsey. Great to see you again. Thank you. Good morning. So you said to us on friday you could really call the season until december 17th. Exactly. But im going to force to you try to do it right now. Give us a couple names that you think are the winners and a couple losers. Basically what we saw, the winners definitely being macys, express giving out great deals and a lot of traffic. A vera bradley saw a lot of traffic. A lot of the deals extended throughout the five days. And, yes, today is cyber monday. So thats important, too. But lets talk about some of the losers. Give us some of the surprise losers. I think some of the ones where it was slow, Luxury Brands dont play in black friday weekend. They play closer to december 25th. Womens retailers are for self purchase. Dare i raise jc pen any again. We saw it crowded in the beginning of the morning hours. Certainly the 6 00 a. M. To around 9 00, but it didnt continue throughout the day. The entire store empty except for the 12 area and then you couldnt move. Is that how it works now . Small electrics is where theyre giving the deal. So house wears areas. Did anyone get hurt trying to get at those buttons they were giving out . I didnt see anyone getting hurt. When you think about this season and really trying to project out, if you go back and we talked about it a little bit on friday, 2008, the number on monday, like the number were talking about today was huge. And yet if you looked a month and a half later, two months later, you would have decided it was a horrible Holiday Season. How do you handicap where we are right now . I think where we are right now, we saw traffic overall just a little bit lighter, conversion higher. I think theres a long way to go. But certainly i think the season, its going to be a battle almost every single day as you keep getting through to those ten days before the 250th. I think we go into a lull period now before you get the big sales coming again. So well hear a little more depressing news before it gets better. Exactly. Okay. Dana, thank you for joining us. When we come back, well med to the futures pits and find out this stories are most likely to drive todays action. Plus a youtube milestone. This weekend, gangnam style became the most watched. This video has more than 800 million views. The video edging past Justin Biebers video for his song baby. [ male announcer ] this december, remember what starts with adding a friend. Could end with adding a close friend. The lex