innovation and the fourth is high out of pocket costs especially for seniors. so as you heard from the president today, this administration has already made a lot of progress in this regard. in the first year and a half in office -- ever before in history saving $8.8 billion in the first year. on the drugs that they buy each year. that work and the work that we are laying out now in the president's blueprint, it's focused on four strategies to help fix the complex problem. first, increase competition, second increase in better negotiation, third, incentives to actually lower list prices and fourth lowering out of pocket costs. first, it's crucial that we have more competition in the prescription drug markets. that means we need a vital and

vibrant generic drug industry and generic drug market. we need to foster and nurture a new competitive biosystematic, complex expensive buy logic -- biologic, we need to foster and nurture that. we need to engage pharma companies that try to block industry of generics or bio similar products by blocking access to their products so they can't do studies they need to do in order to get approval for affordable, generic or bio similar market. sec, we have to bring more private-sector negotiation and better tools to medicare program so we get the best deals, the part d drug discount for senior citizens is now 15 year's old. i was there when we created it and help today launch it. when we did it, it's still a

great program but it had the best tools, it was the best at negotiating great deals for senior citizens and really was able to drive tight formularies that was efficient and constantly low premiums throughout time but over 15 years as so often happens with government programs, it got frozen in place and the private sector kept adapting and learning especially after the economic prices in 2007 how to control drug spend even better, okay, part d, more static, we need now to bring the same tools that are available to the private sector to those part d drug plans so they can negotiate better, we need to unleash them so they can drive better deals for seniors. we also have a major part, part d, these are the drugs the physicians administer. mentioned those in the rose

garden. these right now are paid basically on a list price plus a mark-up, they send us a bill, we write a check. there's no negotiation involved in that at all and the president has proposed in his budget and we are reemphasizing, we have to figure out ways to move those drugs especially the high-cost ones into the private-part d drug plan negotiations so we can get a deal and start getting bargains on that for seniors and taxpayers. we need to look at other mechanisms and you'll see that in blueprints, some other ones that also help negotiate better deals there for those plans. third, and this is a very complex area. right now -- to increase prices.

so one of the things we are going to do, i talked about this in the rose garden, is that we are having the fda look at how we can require direct to consumer tv ads that you have the disclose the list price of your drug. we believe it's important part of fair balance that if you're telling a patient activating a patient to have a discussion with their doctor about a drug, tell them all the good things the drug can do for them, it's material and relevant to know if it's a 50,000-dollar drug or a 100-dollar drug because often the patient will bear a lot of the cost. in addition, we have in medicaid and medicare some key incentives that we can turn around on list prices.

as part of obamacare, one of the deals with the pharma industry was capping the statutory rebates on drugs in the medicaid program at 100%. we are going to work with congress to look at overturning that on rebates, that, again, will make the math work so that when you increase the list price it's going to cost you more money if you're pharma executive thinking about raising prices. we also are thinking about creative ideas in our programs of reversing those incentives, so right now in our drug discount program, if you have a drug that fits into one of these protected classes, it's almost impossible for the drug plan to negotiate and get any kind of discount from you, okay. well, that's -- everybody gets that, what if instead we get, you only get to be in the protected class if you haven't raised your list price in the previous 18 months, what if we say, you can be exempt from

these specialty tiers where the patient has to pay a lot out ouf pocket but only if you haven't increased price in the past 18 months. a lot of tools like that. the other big area we have to look at is the entire system of rebates that we have with pharmacy benefit managers. we are calling into question today the entire structure of using rebates as the method of negotiating discounts in the pharmacy channel because right now every incentive is for the drug company to have a very high list price and to negotiate rebates down often in a very nontransparent way. what if instead we said, no rebates u flat price, fixed price in the contracts, take away this whole -- gross to net spread that removes and make people indifferent to what the list price is in that system and takes away the incentives where even the pharmacy benefit manager makes money from higher

list prices. we also have a real issue that we've got to look at which is the role of compensation for pharmacy benefit managers. they're taking it now from both sides. they are getting compensated by their customers, the insurance companies, but they're also getting compensated by the drug companies they're supposed to be negotiating against. they're getting rebates and keeping some of the rebates. they are getting administrative fees, should we move to a fiduciary model where the pharmacy benefit manager works for the insurance company or the individual and only is compensated by the insurance company or individual. forbid remuneration from the pharmaceutical companies so that it's all completely on one side there, complete alignment of interest. and then finally, how do we lower out of pocket drug costs, well, as the president talked about it, we will get rid of gag rules, right now some pharmacy benefit managers are telling pharmacists, you're not allowed to tell the patient that if they

paid cash for this generic drug it would be cheaper for you than if you run it through your insurance. we think that's uncornable and we are going to work to block that. we also think it's a right that when you're sitting there with your doctor, you ought to be be able to know what your out of pocket is for a drug you're going to be prescribed under your precise drug plan and you ought to have that information and you ought to have information on what competing drugs that are your doctor is not prescribing and what you would pay out of pocket for that and that ought to be across the part b plan and the part d plan, let me give you an example. you're in with the doctor, this doctor has infusion clinic, okay, as part of their office, okay, they write you adrug that might be infused drug, you might have 300-dollar copay for that, well, wouldn't you like to know that if the doctor instead wrote you a self-injectable drug you'd have a 20-dollar copay and you could at least have informed discussion. we think that kind of informed consumer on out of pocket will

also help drive real save negotiation the system. so these are just some of the measures, there are over 50 action that is we have in the blueprint and this is, again, not one and done, okay, we are learning, we are open, we are hearing, we want this to be active ongoing process, this doesn't get solved tomorrow, it's going to take years of restructuring the system, but these are big, they're bold steps, most comprehensive attack on prescription drug affordability in history by any president and i'm grateful president trump is standing behind us and encouraging us to do these kind of bold measures, with that said, let me open it up to questions. >> there's a tremendous number of moving parts in this blueprint, many of which will require legislative action, how much of this works without the rest, do you have to do it all or just part of it and how much can be done through executive action versus legislation? >> that's a great question. most of this we believe can be done by executive action.

now, we are more than happy to work with congress on a bipartisan basis, so of many of the solutions ought to be attracting bipartisan support. we all acknowledge this, these are problems we have to deal with. but we believe most of these actions are steps that we can take using our regulatory authority especially with the power in the medicare program. they are few of them are interdependent so it's not as if any one is requiring a preceding act, we think we can attack many of these steps. it is complex, though, because the system is rocket science. it's unbelievably complex. it's a very sophisticated approach hitting it so many of the financial and business levers behind the system, instead of throwing political speak as it would have been easy to do, it's a very business-mind set focus on how you change the underlined financial levers here to genuinely solve the problem.

that's what the president wants, solve the problem and lead to results. >> thank you, how soon will consumers actually see -- >> so already they are seeing lower prices from generic approval last year that almost $9 billion a year from all those generics on the markets. the cuts that we have made on medicare drugs, $320 million a year from that already. as we make more of these -- we are going -- we are certainly moving forward with any of these changes to make sure they are going to see it in the pocketbook right away, you know, so it's going to take time, some of this will take regulatory action. we will have to go through administrative process but i can tell you as soon as i walked out of the rose garden, you know what the first question the president and chief of staff was, i want to execution framework, we will have a meeting next week on the timelines and getting it all done. >> is it matter of weeks or months people will see benefits?

>> it'll be months with the kinds of action that is we need to take care of. it took decades to erect this plan, arrangements that would have to be redesigned. i don't want to overpromise that somehow on monday there's a radical change, but there's a deep commitment that this is -- this is fundamental structural change that we are talking about to our system. yes. >> thank you very much. india is making a lot of -- [inaudible] >> how is india going to be affected and also at the same time next month is yoga international day announced by the united nations and prime minister of india. how yoga can help, maybe you don't need drug ifs you have yoga. [laughter] >> i will stick with the first one which is generic drugs. generic drugs, competition our

system is absolutely vital that's why deep commitment of the administration to remove any anticompetitive barriers to generic competition. yes. >> you talked about calling the question entire rebait structure, specifically what steps are you doing now and when consumers might see that? >> as part of blueprint we are releasing request of information that's initiation of seeking input. this is the -- this is the possible restructuring of major sector of the economy. one doesn't do that lightly. beginning national dialogue with stakeholders, with congress on if we were to do this, if we were to outlaw rebates say in the part d drug discount program and instead require that the products be discounted at a fixed price, so, for instance, just to explain how this works now, let's say you have a thousand dollar drug, you go to the pharmacy benefit manager and say, hey, if you cover my drug i

will give you a 30% rebait on that after the fact, if any of your patients used this, 300-dollar rebait on that. what this would say is, instead of that, you would have to negotiate in the contract and the contract would say you will get reimbursed 700 and maybe $702 next year for some inflation, so it's fixed and different than list price. so what goes on now, a bit of a game which is the drug company negotiates the 30% rebait and then the next day, increases price 30% and it's this game of chase that goes on instead fixed price, make everything indifferent to this list price and all the fees not be based on a percent of the artificial list price which for so many people is like the rack rate of the back of the hotel room, almost nobody pays it but too many people now in the health care system are paying it and they are suffering from that. >> any timeline for this? >> so this is out today and we

are going to seek comment and we will learn and move forward on that if it makes sense and we need to learn how to restructure, restructure things. i believe that even one pharmacy benefit manager just yesterday talked about this precise issue of restructuring their contracts to get out of this rebait spread conundrum that the world is in. i believe it's doable and will have tremendous systematic impact. yes. >> there are people of notorious examples of drug companies buying drugs that have been on the market for years and raising their prices extraordinarily. is there anything in this blueprint that addresses that? >> there is. >> epipen situation a couple of years. >> there is, one of the elements of increasing power of negotiation that we are doing in this plan is if a sole source generic drug which have gotten attention in the past years, one generic drug out there and if there's any increase in price by a sole-source again internal

revenuic, we -- generic, we will allow the drug open and take action against that drug whereas right now they have to wait for -- for the end of the year of cycle and they can immediate i will go up after the drug, come up with alternative drugs or create preferential treatment if there's sole-source again internal -- generic. >> they are talking about double-digit premium increases, there's a maryland regulator that said something like the ata, echoing past presidents, what are you doing to deal with that -- [inaudible] >> what are you doing to refuse those costs? >> some of the premium submissions right now, it's the beginning of a process that ps with state regulators around

insurance designs. price increases were happening under president obama, they continue because of the structural in how obamacare was designed. this is why the president has been so adamant about producing alternative affordable options for patients because for so many -- the 28 million forgotten men and women in this country have been forced out of the individual market and are sitting there without insurance even they were promised they would have accessible, affordable competitive insurance that they could keep. 6.7 million americans paid $3.1 billion in the obamacare taxes for the privilege of not buying insurance they couldn't afford ant didn't want and 80% of them make $50,000 or less. we are trying to bring short-term plans as an option for people. we are trying to bring association plans as options for people. the president -- we want to keep looking for options to get people out of some of the trap that is the obamacare system has created, high cost and

uncompetitive plans for people. yeah. >> secretary, i had a question about another issue. the justice department has indicated the department is set to change obamacare rule that would bar medical petitioners to deny transgender reassignment surgery. >> i'm not familiar with that issue. i will look into that when i get into the department. thank you. yes. >> you talked about medicare part b negotiating better prices, that is the same thing that the president -- [inaudible] >> socialized medicare. why is that okay for medicare but not for other countries? >> so the differences having entities negotiate in a competitive environment, so what happens in some of the socialist countries, i dealt with them in

the past, what they do is they say you don't come into this country until you pay the low price and here is below market noncompetitive price, you either pay it or you don't come into this country and they don't really care if the people of the country don't get access to that drug and people aren't informed even that they don't have access to that medicine in these systems and so that's completely different from what we are doing, we are harnessing the power of the private-negotiating market to negotiate deals. for instance, the way part d works, the system that we want to try to emulate and use tools in part b, one might say i'm not going to cover the drug because i'm not getting good deal and another plan might cover because they think they got a good deal, the key is senior citizens in driver seat. all right, i need that drug, i'm going to buy this plan and i will pay the premium for that

plan because i want insurance there. you know, if you're in a socialized country it's one size fits all. you can't exit and get airplane to america to get access. [inaudible] >> presumably they are going to learn about yourself as well and might say, wait a minute, somebody who was a pharma executive is now going to be the one in charge of lowering drug prices, how is that going to work? your pitch to americans that they can trust you to oversee the effort? >> trust us by actions and by the deeds in the blueprint, over 50 action plans that are hard-hitting, the hardest-hitting plan ever proposed by a president across the entire spectrum of every player in this industry to drive down drug prices and make drugs more affordable and this is -- i know this from having been on the other side running a drug company and these issues. i actually looked if you could

lower drug prices,i didn't work for any one company. this is how provers the system is, you put yourself at disadvantage in the system by having a lower-list priced drug than others because every player in the system makes more money out of percent. this is why i'm so excited to be here in government with the knowledge that i've gotten, this team has about how we can change the rules of the road and change the system so that we can reverse those incentives to make that work, make the choices work, bring down drug prices and make things more affordable. >> you were running big pharmaceutical, one of the reasons you couldn't lower the price is because you were at disadvantage and -- >> the math doesn't work. [inaudible] >> the system doesn't make that work. my job now with the president's commission is to make that work so that the incentives worked to actually bring prices down, charge less on the list price.

that's exactly what we are about, is to fix that. no one company on their own can change the dynamic. the entire system actually is built for increased prices and high prices. this plan reverses those dynamics. >> one last question. >> yes. >> the president said in the rose garden that you guys were going to stop pharmaceutical companies from using patents to extend -- [inaudible] >> you plan to change and extend beyond what we saw in the budget proposal a few months ago and whether we should see increase enforcement? >> so, one or two examples on the kinds of abuses we are talking about, to be able to bring a generic drug to market, you actually have to prove that your version, your copy of it is bio equivalent to innovator

medicine. well, you have to have access to that medicine to be able to run the tests and studies. what some companies are doing are locking down access to those medicines hiding what are the safety programs of fda and even when fda says, no, you can share for clinical testing, no problem, they're creating limited distribution agreements with distributors to not allow generic company accesses to them. that's one of the things we will be going after to make sure the anticompetitive behaviors that don't allow the affordable medicines to get to market that we blow those, we blow those away. well, thank you all very much. very complex system, of course, a multifactor, multistakeholder approach. it is the -- it's the most xre hence i -- comprehensive before. we look forward to help you walk-through the elements as you have a chance to digest it. thank you. [inaudible conversations]

>> health and human services alex azar calling the current drug pricing system, quote, provers and now saying president trump's new blueprint to bring down cost of prescription drugs is the most comprehensive attack in u.s. history on rising drug costs. i don't know if you heard everything but secretary azar detailed some of the plans saying the administration wants to go after pharma companies that block generic drug makers from accessing products to bring less expensive generics to market. they don't want that anymore. they want the process open. so you can consumer can make more informed choices, to pass the plan azar says will take regulatory approval and some congressional votes but some can be done by executive order. right now about big pharma executives are behind closed doors, they are maybe breathing sigh of relief, you can see the

big pharma names by anywhere from 1 to 3%. they initially took a dip. they've now completely rebounded although you sigh mylan a second ago start today head back down just as azar finished speech, no more of this blocking generics from accessing certain ways to copy drug even as president trump said we are going to shut out pharmaceutical companies and force lobbyists to knock price hikes. invests-- investors are acting e this is going to pass. everybody is higher, aetna is higher by two and three

quarters. these are the so-called middlemen that are supposedly under attack, cvs up by 4%, walgreens, 1% and, you know, biotech, he talked a lot about bio similars, they seem to be fine too. nobody should be surprised at president trump's ire over this. he has never made it a secret. he's not a fan of the drug companies, he's accused them of ripping off the american public with high cost to prescription drugs, the president indicating it is time to start taking u.s. consumers for fools. >> in some cases medicine that costs a few dollars in a foreign country cost hundreds of dollars in america for the same pill with the same ingredients in the same package, made in the same plant and that is unacceptable. you can look at some of the countries, their medicine is a

tinny traction what the medicine costs in the usa. it's unfair and it's ridiculous and it's not going to happen any longer. liz: so what's the answer, more competitive, more generics, companies like mylan, maker of epipen, remember when it hoisted the price of life-saving pen by 600% forcing many children oh going without life-saving drug, joining us now somebody who helped triggered the awakening to price of epipen, erin brokovich of food allergies, michael ray who witnesses consumers struggle to pay medications. what do you think of the president's plan to bring costs down and did you hear anything

that will prevent the mylans of the world from keeping a lock on which direction prices go? >> you know, one of the things that the secretary touched on was legislation that was introduced in 2003 which gives the states the ability to negotiate some of the prices and i think at this point that's what we are starting to see. you see the state of utah, you see the state of west virginia, we are tired of price gouging, we need to negotiate prices. you are talking about food allergies, cancer, diabetes, any conditions, it doesn't matter what side of the aisle we are on, it's impactings every single american family at this point. liz: michael, tell me what you thought? there are a bunch of points that were made, alex azar just talked about taking on companies and forcing them to allow access in order to bring out generics more quickly, they are working very hard with fda which is much more open to fast-tracking generic versions of these drugs, why are the stocks higher?

it doesn't seem like there's any fear in anything that the president or alex azar said that's making investors >> i think a lot of angst in the market was priced in prior to the announcement. was not as aabrasive some analysts thought it would be listening to secretary aazar it was like commercial for our company. it constitutes a efficient market. right now we have oligopoly. we have a chance to reset. if you get information to consumers help them understand with their doctors what the therapy choices are, what the prices are, it will dramatically change the game. liz: the president from the start on the campaign trail wanted to dramatically change the game and when he was president he had one line that

probably struck fear in many pharma companies. i will play it, get your reaction. >> the drug companies are frankly getting away with murder and we want to bring our prices down to what other countries are paying. >> they're getting away with murder. pharma, pharma has a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. liz: robin, you know how powerful the lobbyists are. can congress take them on. >> the thing missing is transparency, consumers, other side, government, we need to know what is happening with the negotiations. the kickbacks. pharmacy benefit managers are middlemen. that is absolutely a casino inside agencies. group purchasing organization, same thing at the hospital level. there is no transparency. we're completely running blind as consumers. what is happening state budgets are being so compromised at this

point they don't have any visibility into the pricing structure. they're just getting slammed. liz: michael we here at fox business, certainly i am a free marketeer. let me play the devil's advocate. the president is taking on a huge sector of society takes a lot of risks. i was at merck. i met a guy spent 17 years developing a drug. his child was in utero when he started and the kid was graduating high school, going to college by the time they made it to the shelf. they take on a lot of risk, don't they deserve price for that risk when it saves lives? >> absolutely. what constitutes a good price? as a human being i want to see the r&d happen, and new curse come to market. it is transformational that new therapies bring but at same time it has to be balanced. there are only some dollars in

the bucket. there are real people out there paying prices so unaffordable when they can't pay the ticket price. not doing so good. liz: pair increased competition, transparency and fda moving faster, we may see some action. robin, michael, good to have you on this. we have to bring you back. he said months. might take a lot longer. we'll be on it and watching it thank you so much. >> thanks. liz: take a quick look at the markets, dow jones industrials off the highs of the session. we're up about 73. 24,717. there is gadd muse for stocks. troubled retailer gamestop, nicole. what do you have in the story on the miss brief. >> three months stepping in as ceo of gamestop, michael smaller resigned for personal reasons.

he said it was not a disagreement with the company. stepping in dan dimateo look over as interim ceo when a former ceo stepped down. he was actually cofounder of gamestop was ceo august 2008 to 2010. the stock is down 2 1/2%. three, two, one, try again. spacex is set to try again to launch the upgraded falcon rocket 4:15 p.m. eastern time at kennedy space center in florida. they attempted to launch yesterday but the computer canceled the launch with 5seconds left in the "countdown." that is not only thing on his plate. released first full plans of l.a. underground fun nil. he said they will be offered free rides if the company receives regulatory approval. up next, liz, charlie on at&t

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♪ liz: fuel has just been sprayed at this hour on the already smoldering fire that is the at&t time warner merger. in a memo fox business obtained today ceo randall stevenson called the hiring of michael cohen, president trump's lawyer, a quote, big mistake. but is it now stevenson's job on thin ice with the board of directors? charlie gasparino has been working the phones. >> i'm not saying stevenson will be fired here, but we do have sources understand the thinking of at&t board members. we understand this michael cohen misstep, hire him as a

consultant, he is not quite a lobbyist, paying him $50,000 a month to sort of understand the thinking of donald trump because michael cohen, it was donald trump's fixer. by the way, this is interesting because it is at&t, is very, considers itself white show company hiring a guy self-described fixer for trump. liz: randall stephenson didn't dot hiring. >> head of governmental relations did reported directly to him. i would be very surprised if randall stephenson didn't know michael cohen was working. i'm not saying he did. liz: 600 grand. >> 600 grand. that is big chunk. here is what we know, at&t board members are increasingly frustrated with him, worried openly about his judgment, lack of judgment given this latest misstep. we should report they were

worried about lack of judgment on mergers. the ill-fated t-mobile merger in 2011. obama justice department, said a lot of people thought he should have known and not wasted the time with this. what they're saying with this, quite frankly if at&t does not get a clean win on the case to take over time warner, as you know judge leon, the federal district judge is set to rule by june, he set himself a date certain, by june, it could come sooner, if they don't get a clear win that the guy is on thin ice with the board and he could be out. what is a clear win? you could do the deal, we'll not stop it and there aren't any conditions. here is where it gets rough from mr. stephenson, i'm getting, my sources telling to telecom lobbyists are talking to me. what would be problematic obviously in judge lee on would stop the deal.

unclear that would happen. if he impose as lot of conditions on the deal, so many conditions, that it will hurt the earnings potential of at&t when it brings in the content of time warner, if he puts sort of, handcuffs on the ability of time warner to truly monetize and leverage hbo, cnn, through the directv subsidiary of at&t, makes it like you have to share that content, you have to put that content in a special vehicle, that shares with everybody, guess what? that is going to be bad. if that's bad, there are board members increasingly interest frustrated with mr. stephon son, i'm not saying he is how the but his job is clearly in jeopardy. this is fairly significant story. we have to wait for the at&t merger, announcement to come out but the michael cohen thing ripped open a wound on board of directors of at&t, now we have questioning of his job. liz: charlie. >> job status or future. liz: sunday, you guys know this,

mother's day. i wanted, you have to stay here for this, i want to tell you a little bit about my mom june. >> i love your mom. liz: she actually likes you know. she used to really dislike you. >> what did she dislike me? what did i do to her? what did i do? liz: my mom june, tell you a little bit about her. might give you window. >> she was beautiful. liz: i was -- hey. my mom was born in the northern plains of saskatchewan. her parents were romanian immigrants, americans the red hair. those are my sisters and brothers. my grandfather was butcher. they were very poor. one home my mom lived in at earthen floors. despite that her talent in theater got her plucked from obsecurity in canada from the royal dramatic art of london where she trained to become a shakespearian actress. she made it, charlie from the

backwoods to beverly hills. she played shannen doherty's grandmother in 90210. >> she really? liz: she watch this is show every single day. she is very critical of me. >> what does she say of me now? liz: it is about me for a minute. i tell you what she says about you. >> you opened up can worms. liz: lizzie, don't talk with your hand. maybe sure to enunciate. don't say 77. say 77. her humor is unmatched. taught us to laugh. mom, watch the show next week i have a great guest. she replies, i will try to stay alive until then. please, mom, i have great guests for the next 40 years. you need to hang in there. i'm so lucky, i wish all the moms, as well as my own, a very happy mother's day. >> what does she say about me?

liz: she thinks you were a originally walt winchellesque, like gossipy. >> i am. liz: something change, i don't know what because i mean -- >> you know what happened? you know i bet what happened? liz: what? >> one of my stories she made money on. liz: you don't know my mom. >> she is trading stocks in her basement but you don't know it. liz: on her td td ameritrade account. >> lizzie, talk about that. my stock is going up. that is not insider trading. trolls we're giving stocks tips to liz's mom. liz: happy mother's day to my staff, team "countdown" mothers and their staff. we'll be right back. the dow is up 80. happy mother's day to all. you'll get clear, actionable alerts

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liz: folks, we have a gain of 72 points. that means 72, sorry, mom. the dow right now on pace for its 7th straight day of gains, longest winning streak in six months. take it back to the new york stock exchange. that is a decent there. >> indeed, outstanding. ii love you imitate your mother who gave you so many great tips. as you nighted the dow is up 76 points right now, liz. we had a great day on wall street. a mixed bag, with the nasdaq in red territory. however for the week, the dow, nasdaq, s&p gained more than 2% each. look at the winners. caterpillar jpmorgan. oil moves to 3 1/2 year highs, that brought many energy names

up with it. downside, losers, walmart, united health, coca-cola. walmart had the 16 billion-dollar deal with flipkart, the company from india. liz: just glancing at the pharmaceuticals still higher. health insurers are looking a little wigley. i'm sure after the bell we'll look at that too. nicole, thank you very much. can't believe how time flies. it has been a whole week since we touched down in nebraska for the berkshire hathaway meeting. there is still a lot left to show you from our 10th annual visit. i talked to that guy about future acquisitions and falling stock price. look what they gave me. a customs heinz ketchup and mustard bottle, with warren in front and me in the weiner mobile. benjamin moore paint is another berkshire company.

the ceo let me cover that wall. that brand new paint turns any surface into dry erase board. when i asked him how many colors it cops in? 3500 colors. good if you have kids. we got a chance to former supermodel turned global businesswoman kathy ireland, how she turned a small sock business into a major worldwide furniture brand sold at buffett's nebraska furniture mart. >> something i love about the message, mr. buffett and mr. monger share, one of great hope, but they're very practical and they're very genuine. something mr. monger said today is an ounce of protection is worth a ton of cure. and really how to protect our businesses. it is critical. liz: she has protected the kathy ireland brand. look at this, bucket owns seas. i made my own seas candy.

honey marshmallow dipped in buttery carmel. you have a to do dip it in the carmel, place it on the cookie sheet. i think i did better than warren buffett, but it wasn't easy. he did one, yeah. you dip, there is a whole, there is a whole effort to it. i'm never going to be the martha stewart here. berkshire meeting in omaha is study in capitalism and master class in investing. we love bringing it to you. in case you missed any of it, go to lizclaman.com to watch all the videos and interviews with the "weekend with warren." follow me on twitter, at. liz: claim like our facebook page. why listen to warren buffett? $100 invested 53 years ago today, when he bought berkshire, today was the day he bought berkshire is today worth more than $2.4 million. arguably the greatest investor of our time.

closing bell, we're eight minutes away. is the yellow brick road paved with gold? on the eve of mother's day weekend, wall street guru david dietze has stock picks your mom would live to hug and hold. "countdown" is coming right back. ♪ the sun is shining so why binge in here, when you can do it out there. with this clever little app called audible. you can listen to the stories you love while doing the things you love, outside. everyone's doing it she's binging... they're binging... and... so is he. so put on your headphones, turn on audible and binge better.

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isn't top of mind. that's because they have a shield annuity from brighthouse financial, which allows them to take advantage of growth opportunities in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. so they're less concerned with market volatility and can focus more on the things they're passionate about. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife. ♪ liz: four minutes before we hear closing bell ring on this friday. we're looking at the market with lots of green on the screen here, except for nasdaq down about 10 points. we were just talking to berkshire hathaway, about berkshire hathaway and warren buffett. david dietze, our guest right now, you have owned berkshire b shares but you watched the company forever, what is it about warren buffett in your opinion that makes him somebody to listen to? this is just a 10-year chart of

the a-shares which by the way, look so expensive because they have never split. >> yes. i was in omaha last weekend and reiterated my favorite message is long-term focus, fundamental confidence in the american capitalism system. our political system will see us through the ups and downs. he pointed out, how can we invest amid the so-called chaos in the white house today? he said i've seen seven democrat president, seven republicans, seen assassination, people forced out of office, the cuban missile crisis -- lis 9/11. >> through it all i held on. there is lot of great factoids, when he made his first investment in 1942, if you put $10,000 in the market then, you would have been freaked out because of the world war ii news, but today that would be worth about $52 million, 10,000 to 52 million, without picking fancy stocks, without getting in and out.

liz: i would quickly say no one had $10,000 in 1942. 100 in 1953, or, 53 years ago, when he founded the company, berkshire hathaway, would be 2.4 million today. if you compare it to the s&p 500, that would really be 100 bucks turned into 15,000 and change. so there is something in the water in omaha, nebraska, done quite well. >> absolutely. liz: mother's day, last minute mother's day gift, forget flowers and candy, david has stocks you could wrap up with a rib been with godmother's stock. >> l brands, makes victoria secret and bath body. what mom wouldn't want such great things to wear on mother's day. we like proctor & gamble. why proctor & gamble? great brands of course. but i love the oil of olay, makes tide. there is credibility in the idea that you will help mom with the

laundry on mother's day. i love hershey's. 45% of the u.s. market in chocolates. private labels is only 1% of the whole chocolate market. who is sweeter than mom. finally pepsi. mom always told us, eat your vegetables even on this special day she might enjoy great soda and chips, frito-lay. liz: push you on l brands. i worked at action 6, wxyx, in columbus. that is where they were based. this was the 63-dollar stock in the last 52 weeks. right now 32. >> mr. buffett would say buy low, sell high. take advantage of the discount. you have near 8% dividend. your mother always told you look at numbers, go with the long term. they have defensible brands. so i think it's a good. liz: warren buffett once told me, you buy low, and then you never sell. he doesn't like to sell. it is very important to him.

[closing bell rings] his favorite holding term is forever. >> absolutely. liz: david, great to have you. markets close higher for the week. dow closes up for the 7th straight day. that does it for the claman countdown. happy mother's day. david: happy mother's day. good news you're making money if you have stocks at all. ending up for the week as well. this snap as two-week losing string. it is green for the s&p 500 but the nasdaq is down, the first losing session in six trading days. hi, everybody, happy friday. i'm david asman. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." we have more on the big market movers, but here is what else we're covering during this very busy hour ahead. more powerful and more reusable. we'll soon see picture right here of a live rocket, spacex, set to launch the newest version of the