loses his battle with cancer. and millions watch. a rare sight in the sky. solar eclipse. good morning to you. welcome to early start. welcome back, ashleigh. we got you a new look. how do you like it? the music. it s such a special day. i m going to assume it s for me. it is for you. 5:00 eastern, very early in the morning. let s get started. we re going to start with breaking news. new trouble for the former imf chief, dominick strauss-kahn. he could face new charges in the alleged gang-rape of a belgian prostitute, during a party at her hotel in washington, d.c. this was almost two years ago. french prosecutors saying they re launching a new investigation, based on statements two escorts made to police. dominick strauss-kahn was imf chief. he was also arrested after a new york hotel maid accused him of sexual assault. but he was cleared after her story fell apart. also, world leaders gathering in chicago to decide the exit strategy for the war in afghanistan.
students could be alcoholics. that, according to the newest definitions by psychiatrics. celebrity addiction expert bob forest joins us live. and food revolution day. 58 countries have pledged to work toward a healthier diet. we have the naked chef himself, jamie oliver, live. and good morning, everyone. i m randi kaye 10:00 on the east coast, 7:00 on the west. a lot to tell you about this morning. first, rolled up sleeves and high stakes diplomacy underway at camp david right now. president obama is hosting world leaders. europe s economic woes sent the u.s. stock market tumbling. mr. obama welcomed leader as a short time ago and says it s all about the global economy. this morning, we re going to be spending a lot of time on economic issues. obviously, the eurozone will be one topic. and all of us are absolutely committed to making sure that both growth and stability and fiscal consolidation are part of a overall package that all of us have to pursue. cnn white hous
zuckerberg will become one of the richest men in the world. would you want to leave the results of an election up to a coin toss? doesn t sound like a viable option, does it? turns out it is. we ll take you down to texas. a flick of the wrist will decide an election there. it may look like your grandfather s 1960s rocket but it ain t. an insider look at the next frontier at intergalactic travel. are you ready to friend facebook? in the next hour investors will get their first chance to buy a piece of the social media empire. the most talked about initial public offering in years. alison kosik is at the nasdaq market site where the buzz is building. hi, alison. yes. consider this the super bowl of market events. facebook will open up its shares to the public for the public to buy today. in the next couple of hours. there s been a lot of hype with this. the question is will facebook live up to the hype? i m going to talk about all of this in a bit with you. can t wait
be worth more than mcdonald s by happy hour tomorrow night. we ll keep you here as well, ali. let s bring in christine romans. of course. it s very interesting. let s get to it. institutional investors, windows has closed for them to say they want to get in. those are the big guys. the little guys are waiting to find out what the ipo price will be and put in your limit orders. that s what i keep advocating. what price do you think you want to pay for facebook stock when it starts trading under the ticker symbol fb? one reason there s so much hype around this initial offering is this is a company that everyone knows, right? 900 million people around the world who are on facebook. take a look at this. this is a graphic that shows the connections between users worldwide through facebook. it s a company that has changed how we talk to each other and brought us together with new people in new ways all over the world. i want to show you something else. 20 minutes on facebook,
really? and maybe a bunch of billionaires as well. what many people are asking is to buy or not to buy? that is the question today. ali velshi and christine romans have very, very different opinions on whether you should buy in or not. i m curious. do you buy? i m on facebook. love facebook. is this going to be apple or not? remember, apple went sideways for a long time and almost went out of business first, right? it s more like google maybe. google went up. both were game changers. that s right. this is going to be history one way or the other. the way i see it, this is the second transformation of the internet. the reason i say that, remember, brooke you re probably too young to remember. when we used to get all those disks for aol, they would mail them to you. you get them at the supermarket and you get this portal? the internet was about portals where you got weather, traffic, business, sports, all these things you didn t know where to get anywhere else. google