Wrong. Poor ross. All right. Power players coming up. No 13th month . In the world of investing. Carlisles David Rubenstein, steve shoresman blackstone, venture capitals marc andreesson, and jamie dimon. Look at that in addition we have jerry webb. Make us all the rest of us feel we have one youre an economist or something . You play on to have you can think about the 121212 thing in the meantime because youre good at math. Yeah. All that stuff. All right. As we move closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff, every move is being magnified by the markets. President obama and House Speaker john boehner spoke by phone on tuesday, exchanging new proposals. The president gave boehner a revised offer on monday, reducing his demand for new tax revenue from 1. 6 trillion to 1. 4 trillion over ten years. Boehner responded with a plan that largely sticks to his original offer a week ago. Reports say the white house has told republicans it would include an overhaul of Corporate Taxes in any budget deal. That hasnt been done before. In an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters of abc news, president obama says he still expects a deal before the end of the year. I remain optimistic that there are enough people of goodwill in this town that recognize our economy will be much better off. American families will be much better off if we get this done. The most important thing we can do is make sure that middleclass taxes do not go up on january 1. And im pretty confident that republicans would not hold middleclass taxes hostage to try to protect tax cuts for highincome individuals. Prediction are you going to be able to raise taxes, yes or no . Oh taxes are going to go up one way or the other. They are . I think the key is to make sure that taxes go up on highend individuals like you and me, barbara. We can afford it. You can see the rest of that interview on 20 20 this friday. Markets are watching every move out of washington. The industrials opened higher by 45. The nasdaq would open higher by 10. The s p 500 would open higher by six. And the fed wrapping up its twoday meeting this afternoon. Its latest policy statement is expected at 12 30 eastern. That will be followed by a News Conference at 2 15 p. M. The fed is expected to announce a new round of bond purchases as its last program known as operation twist set to expire at the end of the month. Well have special coverage at cnbc of the decision and Ben BernankesNews Conference starting at 12 15. Well talk to steve leaseman live later in the program. Another story that you heard about yesterday, the you know, violence and Death Threats and blood and guts. Big implications for big labor. That is michigans decision to become a righttowork state. Thousands of protesters and Union Members converged on the capitol in lansing yesterday to object to the measure that would bar unions from requiring workers to pay membership dues and to join the union. Governor snyder signed the measure into law. Shouldnt the unionsing putting out a proposition that workers want to join a union . And shouldnt workers feel free to make that choice to say their dollars are going to the union or not based on they feel theyre getting results . So thats what this is really doing. So thats why i view this as proworker, not antiunion. The righttowork clause regarded as a big blow to organized labor which has seen membership decline across the country. Down to private sector 7 . You think overall, isnt it, 7 . More than 50 of those work for the government. 7 and more than that if you go up, like i think its 16 if you include 13 if you include public, which is where it is. A contentious issue. They point to what happened in indiana. You know, more jobs, better better economy i think the the righttowork states seem to be it seems to have been born out that its better for the overall state. Better for all the occupants in the state when you go to righttowork. You got somebody in the white house whos a big friend of labor. And yet they are losing on the state level in a lot of places. And he named some comment made a comment. I cant remember how he characterized what righttowork laws do. But it seemed like sort of an overstatement of what were talking about. I guess the only other side is this oldfashioned collective choice view or free rider problem. If you want to pay dues, i get the benefits, i dont have to ride along. Its not like its a completely onesided argument. Right. You know where your contributions are going. You know exactly where theyre going. Theyre ending up in someones campaign whos a democrat. And and youre going to help elect what if youre a republican and work in the union and you dont want your union dues sent to its a matter of personal freedom you also have to have the higher negotiators to listen, i dont i dont belong in a union. Im not going to make a huge listen, i values it hire negotiators who will sit down with management. I want to hire competent people and lawyers a better option for all workers is to have the ability to say, im going somewhere else. Dont need anybody to negotiate for me because that would be a wonderful thing. And thats how its trending. Talking about child labor and stuff like theres Civil Service laws that protect a lot of workers rights at this point. And if were competing globally with wage rates in the world, where theyre not 50, 60, 70 an hour and you want to be competitive globally most controls, wage or price controls, dislocate the markets. And if you hurt the companies, youre also hurting their ability to hire more people and compete and to grow and everything else. I think in the age of big streelg, when you think of huge auto plants, it wasnt manageable st. Clair lewis and being the nasty stuff. I mean, if im running a huge auto plant and i got thousands of employees, i dont want to have a bunch of different deals. I want one deal and want somebody competent on the other side or negotiating that deal for me. The decline in the unions in this country have had nothing to do with laws being passed really. Its been sort of falling under their own weight. It doesnt entrepreneurship. Dividing up. And going into a servicedriven economy where its not big industry didnt fall from 50 to 60 to 70 . It was an effective thing. Exactly. The idea of coercion. I mean, i think the governors right. If you believe they provide value, youre going to put up the money. It reminded me on the waterfront. I dont want to talk about it on tv. Anyway, fast money halftime rick snyder Governor Snyder not just talking about you unionized at work . Union . No. You guys cant agree on anything. So right. The fast money are they unionized . No. The fast money Halftime Report will get 121212121212. Lucky. 12 00 hour, the 12th minute, and the 12th second. But im told that theyll probably be in commercial. Which would be a real tragedy. I dont know whether they can change their break structure today. I would want to be there for 121212121212. Do you know who died . A couple of hours ago . Robby shankar. 92 years old. Really . I dont think were allowed to play any beatles music. Although he didnt george learned how to play. We better try and check the markets. Well try to play something. The most famous indian musician of all time. Yoga they do . A from india. Like the movie. He almost won guess what movie he almost won an oscar for what . Not hard to figure out. Gandhi. Oh. Okay. All right. Its going to be 100 years until we get to 131313. Well add a month next year. Rob, was that you . Tell the truth. Hes referring to copy he read earlier. Am i wrong, is there a way in 100 years . How, what would it be . 1212 of 2112. Oh isnt all right. Lets check on the markets. Were going to roll so i can see whats first. Usually the futures. Futures now in positive open. Not next year. 100 years. Right. That you know, fractional gains, half a percent gain,. 3 gain for the dow. Nasdaq would rise. 4 . Lets show oil. Along with all the tension going on at the opec meeting in vienna now. You know, wti higher by 41 cents. 86. 20 per barrel. London, 108. 53. A gain of. 5 . The treasuries and tenyear yield now is very close to 1. 7 . Decline of 1 8 point. The dollar is mixed across the board. 82. 84 for every dollar. The pound would cost you 1. 61. The price of gold this hour is higher by 5. 20. A gain of. 3 , 1,714 per ounce. Time for the Global Markets report. Kelly evans is standing by in london. Michelle, hello. You might be here 12122110. I think the date is 1221 . Today is 1212. 1221 it when the world ends. I think weve only got nine days left of the Global Market report. Im worried about the fiscal cliff once we get the world which is worse . The world ending or the fiscal cliff . About the same i think. One could bring about the other. I think its no accident theyre both approaching. Thats how im going to read the tea leaves. As you see, a mixed picture this morning. People mostly waiting on the fed decision later today. The major boards green, the ftse adding. 25 . The same for the xetera dax and idex. We saw the news of montis resignation on monday. Theyve recovered from then. Wanted to show the ibex 35, up. 3 in spain. There was an italian debt auction that went over well. Thats helping sentiment. The owner of zara, one of the strongest retailers in europe, out with sales. You see that their shares are down. Even though their ninemonth sales figure was up 17 year on year, they said so far in the Fourth Quarter that figure was slowing to something in the range of 15 . So still a strong set of figures from inbitex. If youre concerned about the consumer, but not as strong as we have seen in the past. Thats whats happening in spain. I want to draw your attention use guys were talking about unions. Heres a union story that tells something about the rebalancing in the eurozone. Potentially germany. We know with the xetera dax up. 3 . And almost 30 this year. Investors see if the euro project hangs together, its going to mean renation in germany. That is some wage inflation, some price inflation. The Public Sector union verde, powerful union, along with some others with its contract up at the end of the year is asking, guys, for a 6. 5 pay rise next year. It got about 2. 5 for the last couple of years. It is on the Public Sector side but also an example of what kind of pay hikes we may see flowing through to the german economy. If that helps support spending, despite weak Industrial Production figures and concern about growth prospects, there may be some rebalancing toward the german consumer taking on more of the heavy lifting across the eurozone. So one to keep an eye on, guys. Thank you very much. We shouldnt see that as the unions pressuring they probably are pressuring for higher wages, but theres been pressure on germany to drive more inflation in germany to help lift the southern part of europe. The outgoing president or chairman of the bank of england said, you know, if youre going to have countries with big deficits, reduce their deficits and people with big sur pluses will have to reduce surpluses. He didnt say germany, but thats who and pay everybody more money. They can buy stuff and go back on vacation in greece and all that stuff. Do we count im getting theres nothing like this to get the twitterers going wild. 111 is 112001 2001 . Yeah. Yeah . 2101. Yeah . Less than you got a zero in there. Less than 100 years. But its 111 but 01 youd write it probably. You would want to get to ten 101010. 10102110. I had someone call me dummy and say you . Yeah. Said its 988 years. Then he called me a dummy. I tweeted back to the guy, im the dummy . Im the dummy . 988 years . Im the dummy . The fed is meeting today i admit it, i resemble that remark. Youre with me, pal. The fed is meeting to discuss whether operation twist will expire at the end of the month. And jerry webman is here. I showed up. Chief economist. And union member. A unionyist. Honorary union member. So is leaseman actually. Maybe you can the president maybe you probably with workers fly i guess. We are strong, solid, more than ever. You probably need protection. Probably do. Are you surprised at the 2. 7 in the market and everything in the face of what were telling people as such a horrifying possibility that the things have been the jobs number, were going along pretty well, arent we . We kind of are. I think sometimes we forget that that the market discounts economic stuff and doesnt discount political preferences. We also forget how well american businesses have done over the last four years. So its been i think wed agree, whatever side of the political divide you fall on, this has not been the friendliest possible situation for business. I think american corporations have done a terrific job of coping with a tough regulatory environment, a tough financial. The aftermath of this financial crisis. A lot of negative publicity. And made a lot of money. We want to rise above. Do we not have a debt ceiling right after that . The debt ceiling. The interesting question whether theyre going to roll heres what i think. We havent talked about this. So i say president obama allows us to go over the cliff temporarily so that all the rates go up. Then the democrats introduce a bill to lower it for 9 , do some other stiff 98 , do some other stuff they want to do. Then the republicans say fine but weve got to hold the debt ceiling, thats the next bargaining chip. I dont think we can use rides above for the debt ceiling because we dont want to rise above the debt ceiling. We have to come one new buttons pins, the whole thing. Yeah. That is a dilemma. What a polemic constantino is cutting me off. Youre going to hold that against me . All right. You can hear the voice in my head. Yeah. Hes mad because i attributed in fact, he was right. So sort of right. Coming up, well be talking to you in a second. Whats that . One in a row. Youre right, bob. Thats it. Coming up, well head to vienna where opec leaders are talking crude prices and production. And what is the ceo of the Worlds Largest retailer saying about the fiscal cliff . I bet he wants to rise above. Find out your next question on squawk box. Twins. I didnt see them coming. I have obligations. Cute obligations, but obligations. I need to rethink the core of my portfolio. What i really need is sleep. Introducing the ishares core, Building Blocks for the heart of your portfolio. Find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. Ishares by blackrock. Call 1800ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Read and consider it carefully before investing. Risk includes possible loss of principal. Welcome back. U. S. Equity futures are suggesting a positive open. The dow would open 45 points, the dow 6. 5. Gains of. 4 to. 5 across the board. Now the weather channels eric fisher with the national forecast. Eric . Hey. Good morning, everyone. Our Stormy Weather for today is mainly across florida, in the dry season. St. Augustine to jacksonville, the first coast dealing with rain. Weve got some moving into the panhandle. And a wide view will show that basically the southeast, this is where we find most of the rainfall for today. Southeast of atlanta, north carolina, south carolina, georgia or florida, this is where were going to find the storms. Going to be around for today, then tomorrow, most of this moves out. We get a break from all the storminess that weve been tracking here. By tomorrow afternoon, most of the area looking at drier, much cooler weather. Cools the name of the game across northeast midwest. Everyone waking up to december for a change. Weve got 20s and 30s on the map. Teens in minneapolis. Subzero numbers in international falls. Most of this is what you expect. You get into december, you expect to be cold. You dont expect a lot of daylight. Thats the forecast for today as we get toward new york. High around 43 degrees. Buffalo up to around 38. Boston, high of 40. Into the midwest, were warming up a little bit here around chicago. Weve got temperatures working into the 40s today. 51 in st. Louis. 38 in minneapolis. Thats going to feel nice after a couple of days in the teens. Heres the preview for the next storm. This arrives for saturday. Mostly rain. Snow across minnesota. Northern wisconsin doesnt look like a major event. But for some of the ski areas, new york state up into new england, sunday, this could be a goodlooking forecast. Maybe some snow here. Looks like rain down the city toward washington, d. C. Too warm for snow out of this one. Stay tuned. Next wednesday, guys, could be talking about a noreaster, its been a while since weve seen one of those. Oh, no. Just want snow. Its not correct me if im wrong because ive been wrong, its not winter yet, is it . Im afraid to say how many days it is because ill mess up the math. Its not winter yet. We its technical. In weather world, winter starts on december 1. Wally world . Meteorological winter. Weather world. Not clark griswald. December 1 . It is winter. According to the sun the start of winter is december 21. Also the end of the world. Maybe we wont see weather. Thats right. Thats right. It is. You know, the the vatican says the world is not im going to go with the vatican on this. As opposed to the mayans. Yeah. Pagans versus yeah. I think thats fair. I expect being here on the 22nd like the fiscal cliff. If you cant be an optimist, you cant show up. But if the end of the world is coming, we could stop talking about the fiscal cliff. That might be a relief. That would be the big right. It would happen before the yeah. Right. Thats first. Okay. All right. Thank you. I love our weather guys. Theyre chatty. Can play ball. A bunch that weve been breaking in. You throw the ball, they throw it back. When you go to the local cutins, no one says anything. Theyve got to boom, boom. Opec leaders meeting in vienna today. Steve sedgwick Steve Sedgwick with more. Steve . Reporter hey, just head the prompt. Its me in vienna. It does feel like winter, minus three here. But i can tell you that opec should be happy. It is producing nearly 31 Million Barrels a day. Its got brent over 108 a barrel. Brent will be over 110 a barrel on average for 2012. For the first time ever. Olympic making a trillion dollars in opec is making a trill dollars trillion dollars in oil. Theyre worry good oversupply going into 2013. They are concerned that the call on their oil is going to be less than 30 Million Barrels a day even though theyre producing the best par