You do not want to miss. It is a crazy story weve been talking about for the past two weeks. John mcafee will be joining us live on camera at 8 40 a. M. Eastern. Were going to get the latest chapter in this mystery that has murder, mayhem and suspension. His life is the movie of the week, if you will, and we will have it live right here at 8 40. Please, do not miss that. Lets get you caught up on some of the other headlines this morning. House Speaker John Boehner and president obama met for the second time this week. Both parties are trying to avoid the fiscal cliff. The men had a frank discussion and the lines of communication remain open, although no specific details were released. The meeting came after frustration in washington. This was House Speaker boehner earlier in the day. Republicans want to solve this problem by getting the spending line down. The president wants to pretend the spending isnt a problem. Thats why we dont have an agreement. President obama remains hopeful that a deal will get done. He he told a cbs affiliate that hes willing to do a lot more in cuts and spending, i seas, paired up with a little more in revenue. Were going to talk more about this with john harwood in just a few minutes. Mcafee today. Today. Youre doing i cant even get over it. I think hes in florida, right . Are you going to ask him all those you know when you get a guy, you like to needle them with questions they dont want to hear . Just dont get him too mad at you, thats all im because we dont know all the facts yet, right . Im trying to get a movie deal with this guy, a book deal with this guy. It doesnt matter how someone gets fame, you will suck up to them no matter this guy is notorious, hes not famous. We still have to pick the actor for him. I want pachino, in that movie where he played the devil. He had the gotee. Sometimes he has a goatee, anyway. Hes supposed to be on at 8 40. Hes traveled through many countries. We could have come up here and been on set with us, right . Maybe he cant leave florida. I dont know. Well see. Another big facebook lock upsending today. 156 million shares are eligible for sale for earlier investores and employees. Mark zuckerberg is not included in this group. He says he wont sell any more shares until next september. The stock is quietly, i guess, rebounded after stumbling below 20 a share. Right now stobs closed at 28. 25. Off 25 , but much better. Better than ending in something with a teen. And United Technologies expects profits to rise next year. The company says growing demand for its building products, elevator and airconditioners is growing. Hes hopeful the government will read an agreement before january 11th, but hes confident. Were looking for a bit of a rebound. Ragged session yesterday, but not a lot going on with the vix. Its down a little, but no one is thinking, is it going down 7. 00 . Just probably down to 70. No volatility. Theres this preserve disincentive because everybody seems to expect that well auk about it in a real in words we thaerd it was qep. We just found out it is qep. Because we had a housing boom that wasnt real. If thats the new norm, were at 3 trillion. A couple years well be at 6 trillion. A couple years later well be at 12 trillion. Are you ready for the next . Whats a thousand trillion, do you know . No, but we do have two guest hosts on the set that may be better at math. What is a thousand trillion . I know. Quadrillion. Hopefully we dont have to go above that, do well . Thats your tax story there. All right. Lets take a look at the oil boards and see how crude is fairing. Im surprised that maybe we havent seen crude go up the. Our dollar doesnt necessarily go to zero. You figure if youre doing 8el 5 billion a month that crude would have gone up because 06 worries about the dollar. Youve got new supply partly thank to fracking. I think theres a reason why oil is where it is today, actually. Brent at about 100. So wti is its own supply but its bigger than the neighbor at this point, right . The dollar is still probably the yeah. But think about what this Global Economy has gone through and present is at 100 and wti is still 85. I mean, ten years ago, people would think thats crazy. And the tenyear, this has been like watching paint dry . Paint grow. There, put it together. I told you someone wrote in what jamie said the other day, you cant blanket all bankers with the same brush. I love that. Thats one of the classics. Its like a walk in the cake. Anyway, lets look at the dollars. Mixed metaphors are so much fun. You sound like rick kaufrd, who you never heard of. Theres theres if tedgue. Its an age thing. It is and were working to bridge this gap. We are. And so am i. The dollar euro at 1. 3092. Gold also interesting that its still below 1700. But when everyone says why isnt it going up . Well, it was at 200 and it went to 1800. Is it supposed to go immediately to 3,000 . You can still buy a well, you couldnt, but i can still get a suit for 1,700, couldnt you . No, i know you cant. You cant get the vest within you cant get all the different pockets, you cant get the lapels on the vest. Suits start at five or ten grand, dont they . Yours do. You have a guy like carlson who right before the show starts, absolutely. Who is matt crawlys fellow . I know who youre talking about. I dont know. Because hes weird. All right. So here is the question of the morning. Financial times Just Announced its person of the year. You seem like you know who it is. Ive cheated. Dont say. Barbara walters already named the person of the year. It was petraeus. There is omore than one. Say i saw the name. The honor going to do we have a camera here . Its part of the culture. Person of the year, the honor goes to ecb chief mario draghi for his efforts to deal with the financial crisis. You know who also could be the person of the year . Becky quick. She knew how important that was when he said he was going to do whatever it took to preserve the euro, that statement earlier this year sort of turning things around, at least temporarily. You showed a picture of damian hurst. No, right here. You showed the guy with the zebra and im going, draghi has a lot of style. No, right here. Up here. Oh, okay. The man with the printing press. I know who he is. I told you my latest tie that i get from those guys has bernanke with a helicopter and it has draghi, too, and euros and dollars coming out of the hell koepter. Because theyre on board. Lets go across the pond to where they print this paper. Kelly evans is standing by in london and may have some views on the man being ownered t today. I didnt know the newspapers honor people like that. Oh, you see, thats the way to hold it. Yeah. You showed damian hurst. I can hold a mean newspaper, andrew. Mario draghi is the financial person of the year. This is from the inside, its not their front cover. But this is their big spread. I thought about your comment about the tie, joe. A couple of years ago, it was ben bernanke who was suddenly on the lips of everyone in the world for coming to the rescue. Its quite clear that this year is the year of mario draghi. I wonder if Time Magazine would not decide to name him person of the year. But the fact that he is in the running tells you quite a lot about the importance of europe this year. Earlier today, we were talking about the fact that they had picked trichet on in the past. He doesnt necessarily regret it. He said oppose dollars to some of the other types of running, they look for someone who is having a positive impact. They did consider angela merkel. Thats the answers with regard to the person of the year. Let me give you a quick sense of what else has been happening in europe overnight. The big moves, were coming out of asia. 4. 3 of the shanghai composite. It just had its best day in three years. This follows some pmi data that supported the idea of domestic spending. Of course, its been this coiled Spring Market over the last couple of weeks. After we saw the shanghai fall below the 2,000 level, its in several big days. The news agency tweeted a picture of chinese stockbrokers grinning this morning to give you a sense of the mood. Compare that to the nikkei which was down this morning going into the election these weekend likely to put shinzo abe back in power. Hes seen as following up his Campaign Rhetoric with bold reforms to boost the economy and perhaps get things started on a stimulus forget and yet we see the nikkei down today. Why . Because the Tankan Business survey came out and disappointed. Export orders, a sign of weakness there and in china and in some of the pmi figures that we got across europe. So the theme that is emerging, while germany even showed some signs perhaps of strength in its service sector, theres still concern about Global Growth prospects. For that reason, all the more reason why perhaps its important for policymakers to be proactive, including mario draghi. Back over to you guys. Thank you for that. Who is going to be the squawk perpendicular of the year, joe . You mean if we pick one . If we pick one. We have to pick one thats not obvious. Like mcafee, maybe. I had an opportunity to pick business person of the year and i picked richard scrusi. Its so hard to find an honest cfo. Remember the guy that helped out . I think he was on his way up the river or something. You have to pick it so theres an edge to it. Like leo apatae or Something Like that. No, like mcafee. I didnt mention that, but he may get the squawk person of the year award today. It depends on how he answers your probing your father was a litigator, right . Thats true. What we want to see today. Thats what we want to see. Okay. I want to see him wither under your cross examination. Hes already pretty withered. Yeah, thats true, he is. I think hes dangerous looking, though, dont you . Yeah. Withered, weathered, its all weathered is much better than withered, actually. We do have our guest hosts here. Lets talk about markets for half a sec. Were going to have mr. Fisher on later. Actually, lets do it this way. What is the question you want to know from fisher . Ive been trying to think about it all morning, how to come at him. So here is one. If we get the Unemployment Rate falling to the feds new target but its because people are dropping out of the labor force so that Participation Rate is going down, then what do they do . Do they stick to the target . Do they acknowledge that theres a bad reason for the movement . Do they ignore it . I think with the targets, theyre trying to get more clarity. I think theyre genuinely trying to get more clarity. The problem is now theyre going to be watching every cpi number, every pcu number, every jobs related number for the next couple of years related to when we get there. What we could see is more volatility in fixed income markets as people try to gauge every data point. Are you surprised there hasnt been less volatility . Well, its also the end of the year and whats going on in washington has paralyzed decision making. What is that increased volatility in the marketplace . Were not talking about volatility in washington. If you are a money manager, you are under the assumption still that whether its december 28th or january 3rd, there will be a deal in washington. By the way, is everybody baking into the cake . What is the date in january at which people say, okay, maybe this whole thing is more screwed up than i thought . The market is going to force the hand of these politicians, just as it did with parts. So if its december 31st, theres no deal been january 2nd, the market is down sharply. You can be sure that in the next couple of days, there will be some sort of deal. So i dont look at a drop dead december 31st date because i know the market is going to revolt. Are we sure the market is going to revolt inspect some said the market should be revolting by now. And unless theres a deal go back to last summer. The s p was flat, it was quiet, it was summer, it was ill liquid. And then right around the end of july when everyone started saying this isnt working out, suddenly, between late july and august 8th, we fell some 17 . But it was nothing, nothing, nothing, and then, oh, theres something. And i think thats the risk today. So if youre an investor, if you had some money on the sideline now, do you put it in today or do you wait for this moment that may or may not happen . Well, i wait. To me, theres one that theres a deal and number two is what are the terms of that deal . Im of the opinion that that deal is not going to be any good in dealing with the longterm structural issues. And that is not a good deal in terms of what were facing and in the context of a slow economy. If youre a longterm investor, you should be worried about the longterm nature of that deal. You see, we have more down side than up side. Turn it around, jamie dimon said two days ago that, you know, you get a deal, then you get a 4 gdp in this country. Thats the assumption that, okay, i know the terms of what issing going on and now i can stop spending. But if im a Small Business knowing that my taxes are going up to this extent and my Health Care Costs are going up, doesnt mean im going to know it now. In fact, i may retrench even more. No. And i agree with that. If we have a deal, and we take that off the table, i think thats a different deal than if we have some Republican House members not even voting for something. So the details of what comes out, whether its december or january, will affect how corporate and American Consumers react. Becky and peter will be staying with us for the rest of the hour. Dont go anywhere. Coming up, congress is heading home. Theyre getting out of town. But Speaker Boehner took one more meeting at the white house. Are we any closer to a deal . John harwood is next. A big monday is shaping up for squawk box. Named manager david tepper of the bernanke putt. I want to know the date when he was on when he said that because none of us when he said either the economy gets better and the market goes up when was it . September of 2010. Either the economy gets better and the fed doesnt have to do anything or the economy doesnt do anything and the fed comes to the rescue. No one could have known the extraordinary steps the fed would have had to take in this economy wouldnt get better. All the way out until 2012, almost 2013. A rare interview. It will be great to hear what he has to say. We have much more ahead on this december friday. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. Governor of getting it done. You know how to dance. With a deadline. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. This is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. Yes, it is. Go national. Go like a pro. Welcome back to squawk. House Speaker John Boehner taking a meeting with president obama thursday. Did they make any progress . Thats a question john harwood joins us now with the latest on these epic negotiations. John, gives some sense that maybe things are something happening there . If theres progress there, disguising it very, very well. They met for a little will he less than an hour. People described it at frank on both sides, described it as frank afterwards and frank is a euphemism for weve got strong dpis agreements and did not make a break through. So, you know, i still think and ive always thought, as you guys know, that the fundamentals are in place for a deal to happen. But we may have to go over the cliff for a little while before it happens once those rates go up in january. And once some of those cuts kick in before you get the kind of chasening that lawmakers need to make a deal. What do you see as the top Sticking Point at this point . Tax rates. Not attaching the debt ceiling . No, no, the debt ceiling is a second stage issue and that will be a problem if its not resolved and i expect a big fight. What about these senators that some of them are really conservative. Ron johnson is a tea party guy. He wants to give on the president before the end of the year and go ahead, i guess pass a bill that would extend the rates for everyone and that wouldnt pass in the house and say, okay, fine, well do it for 98 . Put that in the president s court, get that done and is use the debt ceiling for spending. Exactly. No, that is but hes not getting anywhere with boehner and cantor . Its because boehner so far is not willing to go along with that strategy. The way that it works for boehner is if he ultimately puts it on the floor and tells most of his members that they have a chance to vote against it and make playing their opposition to any tax rate increase. But he hasnt been willing to do that so far. He would get some republicans to join with dm democrats and it would pass the house. But he doesnt want to put something on the floor that would clear the house without at least half of the republican members. Spending is a Sticking Point, but there is an asymmetry in the negotiations. Democrats have laid out what they want on taxes, specifically theyve laid out some specifics on what they want on entitlements, not as much as what republicans want. Republicans want more, but they havent said where theyll get more. This speaks to me because i see the strategy. Once you give on taxes and then youve got the debt ceiling, the people would be much less prone to blame republicans for bringing up the debt ceiling. Once the president got his way on taxes, then it goes to spending. If the president doesnt really get serious about cutting spending, then it would be his fault if the debt ceiling is not raised. There would be no tax issue any more and you could focus it on the president. Joe, youre having a mind meld with downcorker and that sounds painful. Can i unmeld . I mean, i can get no, no, im saying that no, we agree. The smarter minds in the Republican Party are going towards the position that you just articulated. The problem is, that is very, very difficult for a speaker with a caucus as conservative has his on tax rates to permit such a strategy would happen. He actually could get fired. I dont expect that to happen. Does that speak to you, this strategy . I mean, then we could get serious on spending. Otherwise, were going to get some kick the can tax cut. I think its important that we all put these numbers into perspective. 2012 revenue wise, the omb predicts that theyll be up 130 billion. Thats without one tax increase. So just by natural growth, 130 billion of extra. So the government spent 3.