Economic arena. I always forget that he actually worked years ago. Then we have steve forbes, the grand master of todays ceremonies. Then we have bill ford. Well talk about the Automotive Industry, maybe ask him a question about tesla or two but really try to understand what manufacturing means in this country. And then the governor of north dakota, now, the governor of north Dakota North Dakota has the lowest Unemployment Rate in this country. Were going to talk about shale, natural gas, what all of that means, innovative and manufacturing and finally, the big issue of the morning, education, and we have cheryl hyman, the chancellor of the city or rather the Chicago City College here and what theyre doing with education and teaming up with companies and what theyre doing to create jobs. Thats what we have going on right here in chicago at the forbes reinventing America Summit. And im going to send it in the meantime back to you, becky. I knew what happened there. I was confused, too. Usually we do headlines and then we do the scene setters. I know it caught you off guard. You kind of looked like he thought it was before the show. You see, its a different time zone out there. No, no, no. The show is starting. Youre live. Normally we do the introduction, i do the headlines and then you you are on, andrew. You are on right now. Im aware that the show is on. Youre kind of in the midwest, although what do you mean kind of . Well, because hes in a big city. It is an hour earlier. I want him out somewhere on a big green tractor, like plowing and to get the feel for, you know, whats in the middle of the country. You see, hes going to the conference doesnt do it for you . No. Hes going to say ive been west of the hudson. When you go right from new york right into where did you fly into . Ohare. Ohare. Flew right into ohare. And then youre in illinois with the one governor in the entire state that still thinks you have to raise taxes 100 and that will help he has a lot of farmland. They have a lot of problems, too. Thats the land of blago, right . What about the fly over state part . You didnt go there. Thats what i was expecting. No, you landed in the one big city out there so you can sort of still feel, you know its very new york like, although they would say that its different. Yeah. They would say its really different. They put their garbage in the back in alleys, not in front. Is that true . Yeah, big wide streets. Its a very clean city. Are you saying youre from there, too . You are because you grew up in gary, indiana. Im from right down from there. Most people dont admit to being born anywhere near gary. I was born in gary. You want to hear Something Else . Same hospital as michael jackson. That was my claim to fame when i was a kid. Same hospital . Yeah, gary methodist. That would be cool. All right. Well be back to andrew. I have a lot for rahm today, too. I know. I actually sat in his in the west wing in my talk to him for like a half hour once when he was chief of do you think he has more power now or more power before . I think he has more power now, i do. As mayor . Because i think thats why he left, because i think he was kind of undercut. But i just you know, hes hanging out with steve forbes, hes pushing Charter Schools, hes reigning in unions. I dont know who this man is at this point. But hes telling reporters that they need to get out of washington, d. C. Because the air is too thin there for it to work in their brains. Hes saying things like that to reporters. Did he say that . Yep, he did. I dont know who this man is and hes hanging out with forbes. So we need to talk to him. Well have some political conversation, of course, as well. Thats what we have going on from chicago this morning. You found your pocket scare for today. I knew you would for today. Yesterday, it was misplaced. But looking fine, looking good. Look pretty good in them jeans. Sharp dressed man. Let me tell you guys about a few headlines this morning. As joe mentioned, increase in dif depends or stock buyback programs. Among the rejected banks is citigroup. The fed remains unconvinced about the overall reliability about citis planning process. This is the second rejection in three years, and its seen as a major blow to citis ceo and michael corvat. The stock took a hit on this news. You can see it was down by about 44. 7 . Down more than 2 to the 47. 79. And while citi was rejected, rivals jpmorgan and bank of america had their plans approved along with Morgan Stanley, wells fargo, pnc and many more. So not only do you not potentially get a dividend right away, but you also theres questions about how well how will things have been going in terms of, you know, fortifying the banks balance sheet. I thought there is some formula that you could figure out and how to make sure you wound up with the credit mim minimum level. Like Goldman Sachs changed their plan area in the week after they realized it wasnt going to meet the minimums. Youre not going to just move. Things have improved there and thats probably why its disappointing to corbett and because i figure they must have thought it was in shape enough to where it could past muster, but it didnt. Yeah. And while the fed approved bank of americas capital plan, the federal Housing Finance agency announced at the same time a settlement with that bank for about 9. 3 billion. The deal will end litigation over the bad mortgages issued leading up to the financial crisis. And former bank of america chief ken lewis settled a lawsuit, accusing him of deceiving investors about one of his biggest acquisitions, merrill lynch. Lewis led the bank from 2001 to 2009. Hell pay 10 million to resolve claims by new York Attorney general eric snyderman. Lewis will be barred from three years for serving as an officer or director of a public company. Shares of bank of america at this point close around 17 yesterday. Lets talk a little bit more about the feds rejection of citigroups plans. Joining us right now is anthony pelinni who says he was very surprised by this news. Anthony, what do you think happened . A combination of factors. You know, first of all, it seems like city did not do a great job at addressing some previous issues that the fed had. But when you read the fed comments, it does seem that citi came very close to getting a passing grade with some provisions. You know, much like jpmorgan last year. Whether or not this tipped the scale to failure, well never know. But this seems to be more of a bump in the road for citi rather than a critical shortfall. Is it true, though, that it must be fairley complicated to try and figure out. You cant just figure the formula and here is how it works . Complicated, arbitrary and subjective, i might add. When you look at what citi did ask to return, it was well above any minimum capital requirement. The fed had no problem with what they asked for. They had some problems, they noted some minor deficiencies that none of which alone would have caused them to fail, but combined, so to speak, made their overall reliability less than adequate. So the big question it was very interesting because the other three banks that failed due to qualitative factors had some serious criticisms. Hsbc, santander and rbs citizens. So the bigger question this raises is whats happening behind the scenes with citi and its regulators. Are there other problems we dont know about . I think the timing of the mexico incident was somewhat embarrassing for citi. I dont know specifically, you know, what issues they didnt address. There was some hint that they didnt do something right. It is harder, perhaps, for regulators to get their hands around global risk and citi certainly has the biggest Global Platform of any u. S. Banks. But, you know, this is a missed opportunity rather than a failure in our eyes. Citi was up 7 last week. Theyre probably going to give back most of that gain this week. But the return of capital story for citi is still very much alive and well and one way to look at this is we still have even more dry powder Going Forward. Anthony, andrew has a question, too. Anthony, i have a question. Its not a citigroup question. Its the story we just did right before that, which is about ken lewis, bank of america, and whether or not you think you should have settled and paid 10 million and been barred. Im going to take the position that he shouldnt have, because if you remember, the government, talking about behind the scenes, the government told him that he had to do it this way. As an analyst, how do you feel about this . Thats a really good point. As an analyst and as an american, one has to question some of these judgments and some of these actions. Obviously, bank of america wanted to back out of the deal. But the fed at that time refused to let bank of america back out. Unfortunately, the relation of that fact also providedest to people that bank of america did have knowledge because they did request to terminate that transaction. Did you feel lied to as an analyst . No. I felt that the federal government did not treat bank of america in a fair and equitable way. So, anthony, what do you do with citigroup at this point . Obviously, a disappointment. But you thats easy. Buy the heck out of it. The stock is cheap. Theyre going to return at least 10 balance year in each of the next three years. Youll probably see an accelerated disposition of improving assets, failure to return excess capital. The turn around is there. Its obviously, its remarkable. The valuation is there. Banks dont have double and triple potential as they did two or three years ago, but certainly citi, by 2017, should be at a 7 earnings run rate. You put a 10 or 12 multiple on that and clearly this 40 or 50 off side over the next two years, banks tend to trade forward earnings. So very few banks right now, especially some of these larger ones have that upside potential and that kind of earnings visibility. We have double digit Earnings Growth. One good thing about citi is theres plenty of room to improve of the previous Risk Management teams, but Going Forward, the new guys seem to be doing a great job. This is just unfortunate. More of a missed opportunity. 7 more than the positive momentum that was folding. But this story is a bumpty turn around story. This isnt a Straight Line recovery. But it certainly looks like its a one step backwards two steps forward story. Anthony, thanks a lot. Great talking to you. Some people might say it was bound to happen, but the ipo didnt do so well. The ipo of King Digital Entertainment failed to make a big splash yesterday. The maker of the popular game candy crush saga slid blow its offering price of 22. 50. It traded as low as 18. 90, closed at 119. 45. Now raising some concern about whether the ipo market has been overheated and, you know, two steps or three forward, two back. Its been pretty good. I dont know whether you can live cap is what worries me, too. A lot of the momentum stocks have gotten a little bit dicey in recent weeks. Well see whether theres any indication of any real problems. We got down close yesterday to the december 31st low or the december 31st close. Were only 2. 5 points, about 3 the points up for the year. So were flad flat for the year. Right . Yeah. Wow. I didnt even realize that. Okay. So all the progress we thought we had made to this point, maybe not so much. Lets talk about whats happening overseas. The International Monetary fund reaching a deal to provide 14 billion to 18 billion to ukraine. Ukrainian Officials Say this deal would require a painful change for ukrainians. The imf agreement will unlock aid to other down yonors. Ukraine must complete certainly prior actions before the imf board will approve the aid package, including adopting reforms in the energy sector. Geopolitical tensions paid a part in yesterdays crimes, obviously. But our next guest says when it comes to ukraine, were overreacting. Oversees more than 256 billion in assets under management. So china is more important than ukraine . Well, i think ultimately. The deceleration, looking at those macroeconomics factors, i think ultimately you have to keep your eye on the longterm fundamentals. Bond falling, military hostilities, good opportunities to buy if youve got the discipline to stick with it, you know, three to six months or more. We havent really seen the markets sell off on ukraine. We really havent. This is a negotiated situation. From the russian perspective, right now its not like it would be in the syria or gulf war or 2003. It is fundamentally distinct. And it doesnt rise to the level of cold war 2. 0 . I think that might be a bit premature. 30,000 troops now. You cant invade ukraine with 30,000 troops, can you . I would think not. Although probably invasion from our perspective, military action is probably not higher on the list. I think the good news is, though, that russia would be more open, month susceptible to economic sanctions than it would have been ten, 15 years ago. So there are some leverage points. Again, i dont think this rises to the occasion of Something Like the gulf war. And i just wonder, both obama and putin seem to be saying the things you would expect them to say at this point. I wonder if when they talk on the phone they really actually talk instead of the talking points. Did you see obamas speech yesterday . It was like he won the debate, it sounded very logical and everything, but i dont know, its his were going nowhere with this. We cant really do anything and europe is not going to go along with this. Other leverage points, russian gas going into ukraine into western europe. Its debatable who has the most in terms of economic sanctions. Its going both ways right now. Vlad, listen barry, look. Thats the conversation youre envisioning . Yeah. Crimea has been russian for 2,000 years except since you know, we have this and and its part of the british i just wonder if theyre really as much there was something overnight that some european officials said it looks more likely that the russians would go into Eastern Ukraine at this point because it looks similar to what happened back in georgia. If that happened, would that change your mind about anything . That would clearly support a diversified position going into this. Coming out of last year, fixed income, a lot of people are pulling money out and they were saying stick with your allocation. Its therefore moments like these. I think youre right. Chinese demand, the banking system. I would be paying more attention to Earnings Growth top line. I like what obama says, you know, economically, it doesnt affect us that much. Its a regional power. He said some but its in brussels and i like it, though. Because they disus all the time. Hes not enthusiastic about this because the lights are going to get turned off. But we lost georgia. And what else a couple years ago, right . I havent thought about it since it happened, not once. Do we lose atlanta and sea island, that georgia i might worry about. But do we really care that much about what happened im just kind of stunned hes getting away with it. We dont want to be isolationists. Coming up, why College Sports may never be the same. They went, we have to stand up, we have to lead. And why you may want to run for the border for breakfast. Thats right. Early morning taco bell, the worst meal i ever had at taco bell is the executive edge is next. As we head to break, check out the futures. Squawk box coming right back. Y in the u. S. , real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, Global Economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts. Work with equity experts. Who work with regional experts. Who work with Portfolio Management experts, thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. Welcome back, everybody. As we get ready for tonights march madness, the world of College Sports could be in for dramatic changes. The National LaborRelations Board has given Football Players at Northwestern University the green light to unionize. They can create the nations First College athletics union. Union lawyers argued that the Football Players are part of a commercial enterprise that generates hefty profits through their labor. The ncaa, big ten conference and northwestern oppose the union drive. Northwestern argued that the College Athletes are students and cant be put in the same category as factory workers. Wow, what do you guys think about this . I dont like change in general and im used to things the way they are. I need to see to determine how i feel based on what andrew says about this. Ive read the wall street journals take on it. I have not read the representative of the prolitarians yet. The nlrb has been very active as weve heard about criticism from republicans about how you know, whether its been stacked to some extent. Its been very active, andrew. This is a regional guy. He is saying they are Athletes First that need to be paid or need to have union rights and students second. Ive always thought that it was and this only apply toes private institutions, so if this does hold, whenever they play, whenever a State College i mean, its going to be totally different in the way things are done. I like the way things are now. I dont here is the view from the midwest. Were actually in chicago, northwestern is very close by. The proletariat view. My question is, is it only applicable to teams that are profitable . Meaning, if i was