Off with the fiscal cliff. The president meeting with more ceos today bringing his plan straight to the people culminating in an appearance in a factory later this week. Costco joins the dividend parting initiating a 7 a share payout on top of the regular dividend. And a shakeup at groupon. The board may be considering cofounder being released. Theres powerball fever. 500 million big ones in the pot. How would you spend the money and how does the fiscal cliff factor in . Well talk strategy with a former Lottery Winner. We begin with the fiscal cliff. This afternoon president obama is scheduled to meet with several Business Leaders including ceos of home depot, macys, caterpillar and at t but futures are falling with signs there are troubles with negotiations on capitol hill. A market credible deal to solve the cliff is key to economic growth. That annual growth idea, that prospect is real in my view if we actually did get a market credible 4 trillion plan. The markets would realize those guys can govern. The big question is can we get a market credible plan. What would it look like at this point . Senator reid said we wont have one. Everyone has to get used to that. Warren buffett talking about going over. Probably going to happen in january. I feel like were going to go over. You can meet with all of the ceos you want to. Doesnt really matter. 200,000 people in a room. Doesnt really matter. Norquist saying dont have a deal. Have to raise taxes. Democrats dont seem to favor lowered Defense Budget and favor higher taxes for the rich and so were done. I think were done. After durbin speoke yesterda, if youre going to get a blueprint, he doesnt want entitlements be part of it for next year. Its the 1,000point solution. Maybe that will change their mind. Durbin said no. Norquist is saying no tax increase. What else is there . Am i missing something . What am i missing . Blankfe stallen made a lot of sense. Mass murderer about you doesnt mean he didnt make sense. Blankfein, kent, mayer, roberts of comcast. Is there anything these guys can say to change their tune . To get people were just past thanksgiving. Lets give it a little time. Things can change. Weve seen lots of back and forth. Everybody is establishing their negotiating position. Theres still a negotiation to come in some way. Ill take the optimistic view. Maybe thats where they are starting from. A reset button . We have yet to get in there and see whether in fact there can be the ability to knock heads around and really figure something out here from the executive, the chief executive, that being the president and the leaders of both sides whether it be boehner and whether he can control his side of things and or reid in the senate and whether we see moderates step up to try to get something done. Im not willing to say as you seem to be that were done. I think i dont know if we can get it done the clock is ticking. Theres not that many more days. There arent. If we go into january, its not going to be the absolute end of the world. If we do get a deal. If you get a deal january 29th, ill be, like, great. Awesome. Im taking the buffett point of view. There wont be a deal in december. Could be a deal in january. Buffe buffett interview on squawk this morning was brilliant and he laid it out. The white house is going on twitter with this new hash tag my2k referencing the amount taxes would go up. People are asking whether they are still trying to campaign. Are they doing that at the expense of having negotiations and having telephone calls and meeting . Let me say that if you own altrea, its great. Its important to point out who is pro shareholder. A lot of that is on senator mcconnell. Before we slam him, lets remember what hes done. Now ive made that point like larry kudlow you now annihilate the guy. When you meet with Business Leaders, they feel same. Dont go over the cliff. Profits will go down. Going to are to lay off people. That sounds like common sense. Has that played any role at all, common sense . Clearly not. Here we are with just days until the cliff happens. We keep talking about the cliff as though were not going to wake up on january 1st. You think its more of a y2k . No. I think its out of hand here. I think that theres a stock market well wake up with an incredible deficit deduction in place. I plan to wake up with a big hangover. If we would go ahead with sequestration and increase in tax rates, they have to be happy. Where is santelli on this . He does wear a pin, santelli. Its a good question. Look, i just think that it is true that january may not be a debacle. As someone that cares about lets put my cards on the table. Higher stock prices. We aint going to go in that direction. Its not good for the stock market. We hear it all the time from Business Leaders. I heard it yesterday. Head of north american m a. If you get me a deal, i as ceo am going to make significant decisions that im not making now. There it is. Its the decisions. Its the decision to hire. Decision to invest. Its a little dicey. You dont know what the world is going to look like. I think that the guy i care about may be more than the people meeting with president is jpmorgan head of m a. These are few and far between. I spoke to ceo of pbh after interview he said i want to make money for shareholders taking advantage of the fact that Interest Rates are low. Theyre not looking at Interest Rates lower just trying to figure out what the world is going to look like. Lets not do deals. Stock market goes lower. The president will speak today at 11 35 a. M. When he does at the white house, well bring that to you live. Speaking of the cliff, costco now joining the ranks of companies announcing a special cash dividend. 7 a share. Warehouse retailer reporting a jump in samestore sales beating consensus. A good month if you look at low gas inflation. Food deflation. Currency not as dramatic in effect. Another big food grocery chain posting a number line thalike t. Do a lot for shareholders. A company that does a lot for employees. Its a model company. Shows you can make a lot of money. One of the reasons they wanted to buy is because of the private selling label for costco widely considered to be better orred a good and branded. Its a 5 billion payout on the special dividend. It looks like they would go to credit markets to fund the dividend. Thats how they funded the last time around in 2007 they raised 2 billion. This time around in the press release they didnt explicitly say that but the cfo mentioned the companys favorable access to the credit markets. Which you hear all the time. Which is story we still dont do enough because i dont think you can do it enough. We forget about that. The amount of cash flow thats been created as a result of being able to lower your debt costs, your interest costs, over the last couple of years is extraordinary. And we see companies listen, you file shelf. You need to have it. I dont know how theyre going to fund it. You can go to a Capital Markets and fund a special dividend or fund a significant buyback and have it with cash flow. Thats something bernanke thats the untold story in some way that has been certainly he would hope more would come of it. Low borrowing cost. Its been amazing. Amazing. You pointed out, david it may be a bubble were building now. Amazon borrowing at a rate that looks like what the government should borrow at. If amazon expands the way it should, it brings down the cost of good for everybody. Look for companies with big percentages of family owned stock. Insider owned stock. Theres a couple lists floating out there, jim. Some of them are very low market cap. Names i dont know who you are comfortable mentioning. Lets look at this list. Put together by new edge. Some names are interesting. Top on the list is apple. We had a conversation about how they could pay a special dividend. They have a lot of free cash flow. Not just cash on the Balance Sheet. This is based on high cash positions and also High Percentage of insider own othership. Insiders will benefit if their tax bills are lower. The payout makes what he spent during the Campaign Look Like the cash in your couch. Which is what he said when he was spending 100 million or whatever the number was. Just a tip. Warren buffett to reference that fabulous interview he did this morning. A lot of people make 200 million and dont pay a lot of tax for dividends. Other names mentioned on this show, nordstrom yesterday by a guest and then some others. Franklin resources made a couple list. Knight transportation. Were talking 20 plus, 30 of stock in some private or insider portfolios. Its interesting. If you want to look at some of the stocks that are mentioned, some of the companies are doing poorly. I dont think that they are natural candidates. We look at brownforman doing well. Costco doing well. I dont know. I would be i like yahoo very much. I think shes doing a remarkable job. Shes talking about using that money to do good things. Maybe a waste to give it back immediately to shareholders. For a company like apple, to keep that much cash on the Balance Sheet is almost they say they are taking a fiscally disciplined approach to managing cash. Some would argue that its fiscally undisciplined in having so much cash on your Balance Sheet and not using it toward Better Things or things that would yield more for shareholde shareholders. The stock has declined a lot since its highs. If they issue a special dividend, people would step in and buy the stock or at least hold onto it putting a floor in there. I dont know. Maybe thats temporary. Maybe thats enough until they get through the Holiday Season. If they beat the quarter and stock goes higher, nice to have a special dividend. I would like them to make the money and buy twitter and yahoo . It would be game, set, match for them and they would have mobile and social. If we would get a deal, you might get more certainty and make larger risk taking investments as opposed to the less risk taking side of going back and returning money to shareholders. Do you have a cold . I have for days. Every so often i cant breathe. Im about to pass out. Ill be fine. Yesterday was your hair. Today its your lungs. What body part is going to go next . Its unclear. Did you pass me in age . Im working on you. When we come back this morning, the fiscal cliff obviously taking center stage as it does every day. House Budget Committee member republican congressman jim lankford from oklahoma and phil lebeau has mark reuss live from the auto show and well look at where we get with another implied open down. A few of these in a row now. Squawk on the street back in a minute. From local communities to local businesses. The potential of yelp unlocked. Nyse euronext. Unlocking the worlds potential. To a currency market for everyone. The potential of fxcm unlocked. Nyse euronext. Unlocking the worlds potential. Looking for a better place to put your cash . Heres one you may not have thought of fidelity. Now you dont have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank, like nofee atms, all over the world. Free checkwriting and mobile deposits. Now depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. Free online bill payments. A highly acclaimed credit card with 2 cash back into your fidelity account. Open a fidelity Cash Management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Shares of groupon rising. The company due to meet this week to discuss Management Changes including possibly bringing in a new ceo to replace andrew mason. Shares have plummeted 80 so far this year. Meantime, usa today reporting Small Businesses are leaving groupon off their list when it comes to sales strategy. The problem, theyre not getting repeat customers out of the groupon deals. This is probably no surprise to you, jim. Do you think that a more experienced ceo would lure in shareholders . Maybe a ceo is not in denial. Not drinking beer at meetings. A Conference Call that was contrast him with zuckerberg. The Conference Call which marked the bottom in facebook was about how we screwed up. We didnt have a strategy. Now we have one. Youre going to be surprised how good it is. Masons is we have the best strategy in the world. Everything is terrific. Dont know what the critics are talking about. I would point out today that a 385 for 29. Thats the first one. I believe in chiropractors. This is the first deal. Maybe mason turned the corner in terms of deals. 300 value. That includes the brazilian. I know that simon went to brazil. Im going to find out what this whole thing is about. When you go to brazil you get a brazilian . I dont know. The trip cost like 1,000. Trying to get it for 18 bucks. I like that. At the end of the day this is a company that should probably not have come public or should have sold itself to google when it had a chance at a significant number i believe. 6 billion. Perhaps more. You look back at the ipos of groupon or zaynga, too early to buy . Zynga could use a management shakeup. Everybody has it seems like many dont want to be given to hyperbole. Many executives at zynga are part of a shakeup except for the top guy. According to the journal a couple weeks ago turned over a new leave trying to be more inclusive. I dont know if you saw the story. Trying to be more of a people person as opposed to his earlier self. People can change. People can change. I saw a person in my life i have seen one or two people genuinely change. For better or worse . Good point. Multiple personalities. The three faces of zynga. The three faces of zynga. Lets head to break. Cramer has a message for you ahead of the opening bell. What is it and which stocks are in the mix . His mad dash is coming up next. Powerball fever grips the nation to a tune of half a billion of dollars. Words of wisdom from a Lottery Jackpot winner. Were ten minutes until opening bell here on wall street. Implied open on wall street down 5. 5. Much more squawk on the street straight ahead. Can i help you . I heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. Thats right. Ive learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. You know weve been open all night. Is this a trick to get my spot . [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Save on ground shipping at fedex office. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. If we want to improve our schools. What should we invest in . Maybe New Buildings . What about updated equipment . They can help, but recent research shows. Nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. Lets build a strong foundation. Lets invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. Lets solve this. Hes putting on his jacket. That can only mean one thing. Its time for mad dash. Whats interesting go Green Mountain is the question is what is it really worth . It was clearly not worth this much because the earnings were coming down as my friend Herb Greenberg talked about. Was it worth 25 given the fact that basically its business is pretty good. There is a lot of competition coming in. Some people think its like the stapling business, Johnson Johnson came in and wiped them out. Is that what could happen at Green Mountain . Business is good. Its not fabulous. Its not terrible. Were still trying to figure out what price to put on a company. Business is good. Better than we thought. With a new executive coming in from a very good company. People believe starbucks is spinning a web around these guys and they dont see it happening. I think thats true. You do have an installed base. Its very hard. This is not a toaster oven. Im not saying that you can pry it from my cold, dead hands. I do believe that they have an installed base and that gets better. Its not soda stream which is faddish. Its not a toaster oven. Its a fixture in a lot of peoples kitchens. Im sure the critics will say its about kcups. Those sales were good. Pretty good. There have been a few companies that people love to hate that have had a good quarter or a good call or good guidance. Is there a common theme there . If its a trusted brand that has a product that people like, its been surviving. I dont regard radio shack as having a trusted brand. Advance micro. I dont regard nokia. Research in motion to some degree people like that one. I dont like the stock because it had such a move. You talk about facebook in the same light as well. When we come back, faber has breaking news on Knight Capital all morning long. The question is how close is the company to finding a buyer . Plus the controversy surrounding hp and autonomy. Another faber story. What does it mean for management . Our boss of all segments is coming up. This december, remem what starts with adding a friend. Could end with adding a close friend. The lexus december to remember sales event is on, offering some of our best values of the year. This is the pursuit of perfection. Monarch of marketing analysis. With the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. 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. Im going big. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. Good choice. Go national. Go like a pro. He loves risk. But whether hes climbing everest, scuba diving the Great Barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesnt nickel and dime him with hidden fees. So he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens, which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense, from Td Ameritrade. Another day where you will have one eye on the markets and one eye on capitol hill today. A lot of ceos visiting with the president of the white house as we try to read tea leaves regarding the fiscal cliff. Dow down 89 points. As we await the opening bell in a minutes time, i want to replay something from last night which conagra talked about the mood of the consumer. Heres what he told cramer last night on mad money. Where do you see the consumer right now . Its a ver