And thats nearly half the average 25 shares he paid when he first invested and that investment was originally made in 2010. U. S. Government and swiss banks near tax probe deal. The goj expects to announce a new Program Within days. The program would allow some swiss banks to avoid or at least defer prosecution under a probe of offshore tax dodging by americans, but it will exclude 14 swiss banks that are already under investigation. Joe, i dont know where that leaves you with your account. I have a bank that is, like, owned by a swiss bank, but it makes me feel like i have a swiss bank account. But all the way back to ges purchase of remember long ago, we can trace it all the way you said you would say it twice but you only said it once. 100 billion. You only said it once. I need to feel my pulse. We need to talk about that. Like these two, they both waited because they thought didnt verizon thought it could get cheaper. But now the taper. This is one of those transactions that has frankly in terms of the timing has less to do with the with the economy in some ways or the business than it has to do with ben bernanke. I want to hear that. Interest rates are going up. Time is running out. What is the cheapest they have could have gotten it four that they thought at the time was too expensive . Like 50, right . They dont want to do 50 because it was too much. And now now 100. Amazing. Come over here. Im coming over. Who are we most like, rhone and martin, smothers brothers. You dont see the twoman teams anymore really. They always it always has got to be, you know, regis and kathie lee or michael and kelly or joe and mika. It is never it is almost like never two guys hanging out. Like gender discrimination that we cant were going to were going to change that. Were going to change that. None of those people, penn and teller, brewer and shipley. Hanity and combs. That works for me. He was so ineffectual. He looked look a martian, didnt he . Are you well. I dont want to be im cold. American airlines, us airways and think of some more, and the Justice Department, say theyre open to settling a court fight over whether the two companies should be allowed to merge. Bern and ernie. There is no sign of an imminent agreement. Well talk it an Airline Analyst in the next half hour. And retail news, guess who is reporting better than let me start again. Guess is reporting thats confusing. It is. Guess is reporting dont guess. It is guess is reporting better than expected Quarterly Sales driven by north american operations. The company also offering upbeat full year guidance and shares rose sharply on the new whoa. That is a big move in guess. 17 . What happens if you work at guess an you call somebody up and they say where are you calling from and you say guess . It is confusing. But it does you remember, and it is notable that they i think it is a good name. Toyota says the next generation prius will offer improved fuel economy. The automaker appoints the smaller, lighter, critical parts. The next prius is expected in 2015. I have a loaner. I had a loaner for the past two or three days. Also it is a hybrid. You went from porsche to hybrid. It is a porsche hybrid, but im driving it. The loaner is not the loaner is not a prius. It is a cayenne. I like that. You do . A chili pepper. It is hot. It is a hybrid. I feel i feel i feel better about myself. Do you . I do. I feel a little better about myself. My footprint is smaller. Im about a size 6 now. Im usually 13 1 2. 28. 49 on the dow jones. Managed to go up to 48 yesterday. Up more than that. But as long as the war drones are beating, but did you notice that wait for the u. N. , it may take a while. I know. Menendez, absolutely got to do it. Liesman, absolutely have to do it. Where are we . Where are you . I think i might be with the brits. Wait for the u. N. Then we see cover. Wouldnt it be good if we were going to do it wouldnt it be good if we had something in mind that we were trying to accomplish . Instead of just a punitive our first guest, if you remember the 6 00 hour yesterday, said you have to have a has to be a goal. Richard engel will be on. Hes a favorite that is a legitimate favorite. Thats true. Youve cheapened the term. You have to say, i mean it this time. Thats bad. You call other people favorites and dont mean it and then you call Richard Engel a favorite, he is actually a favorite. A friend and a favorite. Ross westgate, i think, got a haircut, standing by in london. Saw him earlier, looked high and tight. Is that true . I had it when i started the week. We talked about that somebody else said that yesterday. Every day it looks different, which is true a lot of times. We try Different Things and end up looking the same. Thats a rod stewart song. Just whatever happens when you get up in the morning. Talking about the morning here, we are equities are up. Were about 6 to 3. Ratio of 2 to 1. Ftse 100 boosted by the vodafone story, up about a third. Auction this morning, they raised the maximum they wanted on five and ten year. But yields are up. Look at the sectors. Telecoms in the spotlight up 3. 2 . Oil and gas best performer yesterday was weaker. British Parliament Says well wait for a vote post the inspection. Vodafone, this stock up 8 . Up nearly 9 already this morning. And here is the thing, investors and some brokerages are saying the shareholders for vodafone are looking for a price tag of not 100 billion. Thats why they say vodafone management should be focusing their discussions. If they do that, if they can agree, thats a big if, of course, theyre talking about an upfront 20 billion special dividend to investors. Vodafone would consolidate more on internet and telecoms play in europe. The other stock up 3. 7 today. Global revenue up 7 . Strong growth in u. S. And uk upsetting europe. The argument for vodafone, 120 a price tag theyre talking about. Back to you. Okay, thank you for that report. Well see where that transaction goes. Big news in the uk and this side of the pond. The u. N. Chief saying that inspectors in syria will continue their investigations until tomorrow. And nbcs amin mohyeldin joins us with more. A lot of moving developments across the region. Among them, ban kimoon saying it was imperative to give time to u. N. Weapons inspectors on the ground inside damascus. The time they need to finish their reports. They headed out to that part of the damascus to determine whether or not chemical weapons were used on august 21st. Theyre continuing interviews with eyewitnesses, some patients, collecting samples. They say they need until friday to conclude findings and submit that to the united nations. A lot of calls are growing that the United States and allies should wait until the findings of that report are made clear. At least made public. The u. S. Rejected that saying it has the intelligence and has the evidence it needs to make sure that it was the Syrian Government that ordered the use of these,cal weapons. But the region remains very tense. Here in beirut and lebanon, more than 6,000 syrians fled in the past 24 hours, crossing the border. Many people are anticipating a strike. Some countries nearby have come out with statements. Iran, one of syrias closest allies. The senior military commander has come out and said he predicts if in fact the u. S. Attacks syria, it would be the second vietnam for the United States and the beginning of the end of the israeli state. You can see the rhetoric is being ratcheted up. One of the u. S. closest allies egypt has come out and rejected any type of Foreign Military intervention in syria. They say the International Community should punish the Syrian Regime if they did use chemical weapons but force was not the way to do it. Thank you for that report. Well come back to you in the next coming days and maybe even hours depending how things turn out. Joining us now, jack jacobs, an nbc news military an rift. And colonel jacobs, great to have you on this morning. Im looking at some of your comments which are worrisome. You heard the term loselose. Is there any way the u. S. Can come out of this and accomplish something . The best we can hope for is some type of, i dont know, symbolic move where it is a neutral and hope nothing worse happens from it. The president painted us into a corner when he said publicly that the use of chemical weapons by syria would be a line they shouldnt cross. And so that puts us on the collision course with our own decision. It makes it extremely difficult. We reduced our flexibility and optionality and now were stuck with having to have to react in some way. Youre right, it is loselose. Were in bad shape if we do launch an attack, but we have to figure up what the objective is and what vehicles were going to use and all the rest of that. And all the ancillary problems result from it and were in bad shape if we dont. Because we said we would. Lousy diplomacy, im afraid. The point you make is maybe we wont get the u. N. , we cant get russia. Definitely wont get the u. N. Because of russia. We get another alliance, nato or a bunch of people involved with us. Will be our missiles as you point out, mostly us, but since there is really no since Public Opinion here does not want us and nobody wants us to get another protracted confrontation, obviously. Were entering into it knowing it is going to be, you know, fairly small and not really do that much, which begs the question. You said it yourself, why wouldnt assad then test us again knowing that we dont want to be drawn into something . He certainly would. There is an ancillary problem too no one is talking about. There are plenty of russian advisers in and around targets that we would shoot at. Notably air fields and other delivery systems. If we launch the surgical strikes with Cruise Missiles, and not airplanes, we still have the problem of collateral damage, including dead russians. Not good. And ahead of that, by the way, the russians have sent some ships in the area. What is it more likely that he launches another chemical attack if we dont do anything . Or if we in fact do something . What do you think is it the same . What if we didnt do anything and said, look, i guess we look silly if we say next time were really going to do something. Were really going to do it then. Instead of the symbolic thing for two or three days where we say, seriously, but then i can hear myself saying how ridiculous it sounds. What is the greater likelihood if we dont do anything that he does it again, or that if we do something for two or three days and you say that that will make him do it again too . I think marginally hes more likely to use chemical weapons if we dont do anything. Only marginally. It worked for them, right . Hes not getting the kind of results that he wants on the battlefield, and this actually is a way for him to stay in power if he just scares the heck out all of the people back in the rebels. His biggest problem is that the longer this goes on, the more both sides get drained, but becomes extremely difficult for the Syrian Government, so using weapons of mass destruction like this in his mind may shorten the conflict. I dont think it matters to him whether we launch an attack or dont. The big problem is what is going to happen to destabilize the region, make it much more difficult, drive prices up, which they already have and theyll continue to go up as long as there is a specter of a wider conflict in the region. Colonel, a question on timing. There was an expectation we could be days away from this. If we have to wait on the brits and the brits have to wait on the u. N. Report, if not the u. N. , which we dont believe is coming along completely, what kind of timeline should we be thinking about . A week at least and probably more. The plans are already in place to do it and they have been in place for a long, long time. We have standing plans to do all manner of uses of the military, instrument of power. Including a punitive strike on syria for using chemical weapons. They have been in place for a long, long time. Thats not the problem. We dont have to gear up anything. We got it ready to go. The problem son the political front. Consultation with colleagues, with allies, with russia. And also consideration of what happens when we do make the strike, what happens to the what is the reaction in all of that. How many countries do you think we have to go in with to have a some level of moral authority on this issue, meaning there seems to be a view we cant go in alone, if we just go in with the uk, is that enough . No. We may go in with uk and france and say thats nato and that will be good enough. And theyll probably be some participation with there may be some participation with saudi arabia because they they want to see the outcome to be the overturning of assad. But we just need to say it is nato and thats good enough. All the awacs will be ours. The french will be involved, the brits will be involved and thats probably all that is required. Colonel jacobs, thank you for your time. My great pleasure. Coming up, why fast food workers are organizing a nationwide strike today. Well talk about it. Plus, news of a breakup of one of silicon valleys most profile couples. Has a lot of investors talking about it. A little gossipy story on silicon valley. Lets check on the National Weather forecast with reynolds wolf. Look whos here. Okay, cool kids, lets look at the forecast today. Well see some rain again, possibly storms through parts of the eastern seaboard to the carolinas. Rain and storms still hot for you in parts of the north and central plains. Monsoonal rains in the four corners, not much hope for the fires, especially in parts of california. The rim fire still burning out of control. 30 contained. Theyre work hard on it. In terms of delays, you mooight see backups in minneapolis, miami, from sea breeze and thunderstorms. New york for now, not expecting any delays. If we get showers into the afternoon, maybe a shorttethun you may see some backups at the big three. More squawk box coming up around the corner. Sit tight. Time to have new experiences with a familiar keyboard. To update our status without opening an app. To have all our messages in one place. To browse. And share. Faster than ever. Its time to do everything better than before. The new blackberry q10. Its time. Time now for the executive edge, our daily segment focused on giving Business Leaders a leg up. A special edition. Were together, usually somebody is standing aside. Well share reading the thing to respond to. Youll read one. Ill respond and you read this is where we got people have come up with some other someone wrote in dumb and dumber. Lovely. Jim carrey and i said woodward and bernstein. You didnt think that was appropriate. No. No, i didnt. Too serious. Im still back to bert and ernie. I like dumb and dumber. Lets do the news. I want to be jim carrey. I can do this really annoying sound at the end of this. Producers want us to do the news. Thats the most annoying sound to me. Fft food workers across the country are expected to stage a strike today. It is part of an almost Year Long Campaign to raise wages in the service sector. Workers are demanding the federal minimum wage be raised from 7. 25. They want to form unions. That would be doubling more than doubling the price. But in an oped in todays wall street journal, the chairman of the National RestaurantAssociation Warns that raising the minimum wage will mean losing jobs. Both part time and full time positions make the Restaurant Industry a versatile career option for a variety of workers from underemployed or hard to employ workers to college graduates. The industry provides a pathway to the middle class and often the he represents daddy war bucks and the restaurant association. What hes saying is going to immediately be dismissed as talking his own book. If you just think about it, we got this huge pool of people that cant find work, there is a price in the market place that they will say yes. Give that to me. If you set it where it is too high, the restaurant themselves will hire fewer people because it is what they do. If it got to a point where the margins were so slim, that they werent able to there is no growth, stock prices, you know, stay stagnant, doesnt you need to grow and there has there is a certain amount the market will bear among competition that sets the price. When you set an artificial price, everything gets messed up. Fewer people work for 15 an hour, but plenty of people who say, yeah, ill take it for nine that will be sitting at home. I dont disagree with you at all. Not at all. I wonder about the larger issue of what do we do with the middle class these jobs, a lot of the jobs were starter jobs. People did this them for a couple of years. And in the economy that were living in today, theyre not. A lot of people in their mid30s is it because do we need to do some of this, so the whole jobs picture gets better, we get to 5 and wages start going up. Dont think were in a position to raise the wages. It will hurt the economy there is too much slack. And you saw what did walmart say, 75 of the people in management now initially were at the starter level. Same story, 40 of their management started literally in the trucks at u. P. S. I started writing winners and losers for ron insana and kathleen campion. I was riding one, eight times a day, i would write winners ands doers. I started off xerox and stapling. A new report finds home values are rising, but millions are still drowning in debt. Online Real Estate Company zillow says more than 3 million u. S. Borrows are now above where their mortgages were. So but, due it home appreciation, it is pointed out in the piece, just getting back to even or a little bit above doesnt allow you really to feel like you should sell. You just dont do it. Now, the people that are really below are still way below. 24 of home owners with a mortgage of more than their homes are worth still and more than half of those underwater are more than 20 or more. Those are the places where they bought right at the top and some of these hot areas and down so much. So roughly 1 in 7 owes more than twice what their home is worth and no way the question then is not only do you not sell do you let it go . Right. Depends how much help i count on. Moral hazard of the government has to decide how much to get involved, because the more you get involved with i dont want to call them deadbeat, the more you get involved there, the more they say why am i br