what is he like, jeff bezos? , , ., , that is fine. what is he like, jeff bezos? ,, ., , , bezos? very smart, very focused, very disciplined. _ bezos? very smart, very focused, very disciplined. i— bezos? very smart, very focused, very disciplined. i get _ bezos? very smart, very focused, very disciplined. i get along - bezos? very smart, very focused, very disciplined. i get along with l very disciplined. i get along with him great. d0 very disciplined. i get along with him areat. ., ., , very disciplined. i get along with him areat. . ., , ., , him great. do you have any qualms with working _ him great. do you have any qualms with working someone _ him great. do you have any qualms with working someone you - him great. do you have any qualms with working someone you barely l with working someone you barely knew? it is a strange place for an editor, you have to form a new relationship and notjust with anybody. relationship and not 'ust with an bod . ~ , ., relationship and not 'ust with an bod. ~ , ., ., anybody. when i became editor of the minor herald — anybody. when i beca

what is he like, bezos? very smart, very focused, very disciplined. you know, i get along with him great. do you have any qualms about working with someone you barely knew? it is a strange place for an editor to be, isn't it? you have to form a new relationship and notjust with anybody. when i became editor of the miami herald i was working for somebody i barely knew. when i became editor of the boston globe i was working for someone i barely knew. and when i became editor of the washington post i ended up working for someone i barely knew and when bezos acquired us, i was so i was kind of used to it. so it is fine. i should say in the spirit of fairness that you have won plaudits for the way in which you handled that relationship publicly, but i wonder if you could say now, reflecting on it some years on, whether it is sometimes an uncomfortable place for a journalist to be, being ultimately owned by someone who has an incentive in seeing their competitors denigrated? right, but the thing is that he has not interfered in ourjournalism at all and i'm

when jeff bezos says — amazon behind it? when jeff bezos says amazon - amazon behind it? when jeff bezos says amazon would i amazon behind it? when jeffj bezos says amazon would be happy with a higher corporate tax rate, if you means, i am happy with that because we're not paying anything like the statutory rate anyway. amazon and the others would have to pay that minimum statutory rate. i think it would change the way that amazon competes with small domestic businesses. who can't take advantage of these profit shifting opportunities. i think this will be a real shot in the arm for competition. as much as anything else, we will see markets move better because we have read in the disproportionate power some of these big companies like amazon have. ., ~ these big companies like amazon have. . ~ ,, these big companies like amazon have. ., ~' ,, , these big companies like amazon have. . ~ , . ~ have. thank you very much, alex cobham, have. thank you very much, alex cobham. joining _ have. thank you very much, alex cobham, joining us _ have. thank you very much, alex cobham, j

you have jeff bezos stepping down in a couple months. you have a new ceo who really, you know, doesn't care. i don't think he cares if it's a $3,000 stock, i think there's some sort of a thing with bezos where he wants to go out with a $3,500 stock. the new guy just wants to show growth and more people buying the stock, and the market capex anding, so i kind of think if i was to bet that this is not the quarter they are going to do the split. they are going to wait until jazzy takes over as ceo, and then do it. it's every logic, it's logical. again, i have no sources inside amazon. when i tweeted this stuff out and wrote about it, i was quoting smart people like scott saying they think this is going to happen and the speculation is obviously been picking up as the quarter is coming down because it makes very much conceptual sense to do it. i just think there's a political thing here. this is me. maybe you guys know better you know bezos better than i do. i kind of think it'll happen when the other guy is in charge, and i think it won't h

in a blog posted yesterday, bezos says mr. biden's plan will require concessions from all sides. his words come after the president singled out amazon for criticism about how much it pays in federal taxes. >>> mr. biden is proposing increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% to help pay for his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal. >>> taco bell is going on a hiring spree. the fast food chain is aiming to hire at least 5,000 workers in a single day on april 21st. the company plans to convert restaurant parking lots into job fairs where on-the-spot interviews will happen. they're hiring for positions including cashiers and general managers. the annual hiring event is being done differently for a second year in a row due to the pandemic. >>> and it's a list everyone wants to be on -- "forbes" named jeff bezos as the richest person in the world. his net worth is valued at $177 billion. he was followed by spacex and tesla founder elon musk, businessman bernard arnaut, microsoft's bill gates, and facebook's mark zuckerberg. the entire list includes more than 2,700 billionaires.

what amazon's ceo jeff bezos is telling the white house about its proposed tax hike. >>> two weeks early, the uk begins to roll out its third covid vaccine for the first time today. and a chip surge, private bidding war sending one chinese maker surging in the trade and getting out ahead. what sources close to cnbc said morgan stanley did in the leadup to that archegos capital trading scandal. it's wednesday, april 7th, 2021. and you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc ♪ >>> good morning to you. i'm dominic chu in for brian sullivan this morning. here's how stock futures are looking on this wednesday morning. you can see here, we're indicated just slightly here about 32 points higher for the dow jones implied. s&p up higher, 3 points and the nasdaq, 14 stable moves overnight stocks upping off a mostly lower session just yesterday the russell 2000 small cap, snapping a four-day winning streak, the s&p 500 snapping a three-day streak >>> in asia, hong kong finally open for trade after an extended holiday weekend in most asian markets, especially china, hang seng down 1% s

brandon, what is bezos up to? >> well, bezos is trying to cut a deal here. for amazon, they have been able to reduce their taxable income by taking advantage of certain components of the tax code, for instance, those that allow r&d expenses to be written off, capital expenditures to be written off. so for them, the corporate tax rate is important but not nearly as important as preserving other components in the tax code. i think that's why you're seeing bezos with the statement that he issued yesterday so he can focus more on r&d expensing, capital expensing and items like that that are problematic in the biden tax plan rather than -- david: so this gives bezos a little political capital or arguing capital in order to come back and save some of the deductions that led to, i think amazon paid about 4.3% in taxes, corporate taxes over the past couple of years. but with those deductions in there, he might still do pretty well, kristin. >> that's right. and, frankly, when we talk about things like raising the corporate tax rate, the question is what types of bus

bezos calling aws one of amazon's children. the others also being prime, which is ten years old some huge engagement numbers there as well. engagement numbers up 70% over the last year. we know that they have been spending huge amounts on content and amazon cfo telling me that's going to continue into this year as well as on things like logistics. we know amazon has been spending there heavily already. let's bring in keith rabois, an early employee at paypal and square and linkedin. keith, good morning. i know you've been critical of silicon valley in the past after their blowout quarters, though, their record growth, is that a good thing for america? >> it's a reflection of the last 10 or 20 years of investment, r&d and intellectual property, so it's manifesting itself right now. we'll see what the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years look like, which i think will be different. technology takes time to develop, time to shift, time to be adopted by consumers and turn into revenue and monetization. you're seeing the monetization phase extr

bezos owns "the washington post." you have large corporations who have thousands of lobbyists all over washington, d.c., former leaders of the democratic and republican party. they make incredible campaign contributions. so when we talk about the need to create a vibrant democracy, it means taking on incoming wealth inequality, bringing power back to ordinary people through campaign finance reforms, ending gechlt rrymandering, to ending suppression of voters. it is a big issue. it is a very big issue in terms of the power of the few. >> yes. and yet president joe biden while admirably considering an increase is refusing a tax increase on billionaires like bezos. why do you think that is? have you spoken to him about it? >> i've spoken to the white house. they are more than familiar with my views on the need to address income and wealth inequality. and i think one of the ways that you do that is, simply speaking, a wealth tax. when you have somebody like bezos, $180 billion. when you have the walton family worth even m

amazon's jeff bezos weighs in. speaking of amazon, the vice president of the company's cloud-based services will be among our guests wednesday in bloomberg tactics special -- bloomberg tech special, "chip crunch." we will examine the global surprise shortage and talk to ceos at nearly every stage of the production process, we will speak with the global foundry ceo and covering the chips shortage from all angles in our special, wednesday. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ emily: the tax plan president biden laid out will likely hit attack and to pharma particularly hard. -- hit tech and pharma particularly hard. the challenge for legislators will be to minimize loopholes that could diminish the impact, according to tax experts. i want to bring in bloomberg's laura davison who has been covering this in depth for us. what stands out to you? laura: tech and pharma have had the run of the tax code for a couple of decades. they have had all of the tax breaks advantages to them and they have had the flexibility because they were

jeff bezos bezos released a statement saying, we support the administration's focus on making bold investments in american infrastructure, both democrats and republicans have supported infrastructure in the past, and it is the right time to make this happen. we recognize the investment will require concessions from all five, both on the specifics and how it gets paid for. the are supportive of a rise in corporate tax rate. we look forward to congress and the administration coming together to find the right balanced solution that maintains and enhance competitiveness. it is slightly long but i wanted to read it because it's unusual to hear jeff bezos come forward and put a stake in the ground. what do you make of this? laura: this could prove to be a smart strategy for jeff bezos and amazon. the tax would probably hurt them, but on the other side of the break, infrastructure, they stand to benefit from airports, roads, bridges, charging stations around the country, having better broadband access. it helps amazon's business grow and it connects them to consumers better and consumers to the compa

bezos did stop short of endorsing the president's tax hike plan. buttigieg was on ms this morning, jim, and said even if you get to 28 which no one actually believes they're going to get to, you're still talking about the lowest corporate tax rate in at least his lifetime, he argued. >> sometimes you see these comments from corporate executive, and you just say, holy cow, are they ever not united, this bezos comment is directly the opposite of all of the ceos that have come on air and yet who's the most successful i think it would be bezos. david, it's really dawning on people, and most successful banker is saying that there's too much greed, that maybe the most successful user of the internet is saying, i mean - >> i know. >> we'll pay more. david, what's going on here? >> dogs and cats dogs and cats living together. i don't know dimon saying don't get rid of the inability to deduct salt and this guy now, the company that's criticized for trying to avoid taxes wherever we, can we're okay with it it's news. which is why we're talking about it. >> y

look, i am a big fan of elon musk, but i acknowledge that jeff bezos is a genius too. i don't particularly like his politics. musk is a libertarian, i rather like that. but putting politics aside, you've got two geniuses here and, look, let bezos go back and make a better product and next time he'll get to play. the space program is going to be the ultimate winner here, so we like this. lots of activity the, lots of bidding, lots of competition. and i don't know if nasa should run it. that's my -- i hate to see the bureaucrats run this, liz. liz: hey, nasa, those guys are geniuses. i'm a big fan of those guys. larry: yeah, i agree. liz: all right. we're seven minutes away from your show, larry. see you at the top of the hour. good stuff. thank you so much. we'll see larry in just a few minutes. all right, gold showing its metal in april, and our countdown closer says, hold on, it's not the only metal that can really add luster to your portfolio. he's got two other metal picks. the metal pack, that's what we're talking about next with the closing bell ringing in six and

very literally there is a war on wall street between jeff bezos and wall street a war. at some point you have to make your investors happy, that is just the way it is. in one way to think of doing it is an easy way would be that the stocks split, and it makes sense. $3400 a share. that is not in the dow. and remember, you get the stock split, it doesn't diminish the value of the company you just get more shares with a stocking loan. but it's easier device of the action of the valley could actually go up. so an intellectual argument that jeff bezos has some content for this pretty can't say is definitely going to do it and by the way he will still have presence at the company so that is why i am saying reporting spike elation, i am not saying it's happening. far from it. the traders and investors are talking about it like crazy talking about it leading up to the earning so we will hopefully get some daylight from the company on just how serious their considering it whether they will do it or not. neil: interesting got it my friend printed amazon stock continues to advanc

in alabama we're going to take a look at this vote and compared to how another company owned by jeff bezos the washington post has covered in unions and boating and other situations does hypocrisy exist well we're going to debate and a president biden is considering expanding the supreme court but even members of his own party are very cautious there's more justice happen when there's more justices what we're going to break it down with our legal analyst lionel and our favorite gun toting political panel is back to give you the 360 view of the president's executive orders on gun control i am scared you know he this is new you tube and you're watching r t america. thank you for joining us you know we're going to start this week with turmoil once again in the state of minnesota as a nother police involved shooting involving. an african-american male is causing anger in the community of brooklyn center now this is the derek shop and trial continues just 10 miles right down the road and the people of minneapolis are already on edge hoping they want to see a recurrence of the riots and violent

ok so did you know jeff bezos made $3900000000.00 in one day just last week that is $122000.00 times more than the average amazon warehouse worker makes an entire year now this is says he is for raising corporate taxes which the funny part about this is it could actually only be a dollar for him because amazon has paid 0 federal taxes for the last 2 years but does the do what i say not what i do stop there well workers in the amazon facility and bessemer alabama lost the vote to unionize just last week after everything was done by amazon the corporation to defeat that effort to discuss this is well as the contrast to how one of a jeff bezos is other companies the washington post covers election transparency we bring in sara parent of antonio and levin tonio rafferty and steve malzberg host of eat the press here at our to america thank you so much for joining me on this. thanks for having you know i think is a conversation that should have been had all weekend because once again i feel like we're seeing an example of this is for me but not for you sarah let's start with you 1st of all

bezos does now. hello, my friend. charlie: well i think me and somewhat you and somewhat claman put about and somewhat my producer put about $4 billion in his pocket over the last week. let's backup a little bit. on monday, we reported that bezos and elon musk, the ceo founder of tesla, were almost neck and neck in terms of the world's richest man, with mr. arnold kind of in the middle depending on what day it is, these numbers fluctuate. that same day we reported trader speculation and it's pretty intense trader speculation people like scott redler, a friend of fox business on the show a lot, others talking about a lot of traders and investors talking about the need to split the stock and that they believe the stock, amazon stock, would split this year, maybe as early as yesterday, when they announced earnings. that didn't happen, but the stock would split because it's getting so high, the average retail buyer can't get in, and it's hurting essentially the share price growth overtime, because what's happening is mr.

jeff bezos is handing andy jassy a successful company firing on all cylinders. emily: the question is when. they made the point to announce this earlier this year. why are they being vague about when this happens? >> i don't know. they said the third quarter. i expect this is already a leadership transition process that is already taking place and they have a new ceo for aws and i imagine maybe andy jassy is back in his own shadow role following jeff bezos around and getting comfortable running the whole company. emily: all right. you would know better than almost anyone. brad stone, thank you so much for the insight. we will watch the amazon headlines as they roll out. that does it for this edition of bloomberg technology. i am going to be speaking with the twitter cfo tomorrow after the company's first-quarter earnings. don't miss it right here on bloomberg television. i'm emily chang in san francisco. thanks for joining us. this is bloomberg. ♪ so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bou

. >> but what finally stopped kim and her tracks was jeff bezos, people are outraged over the fact that the world's second richest man and first richest-- actually got richer during the pandemic. >> yep, that's why jeff bezos' growing net worth made it to the finals. by i way, what is bezos' net worth. >> it is so obscene it is just going to get bleeped. >> say it dude. >> okay, fine it is [bleep] dollars. >> damn, that really is a c word of money. >> but is it going to annoy people as much as the bracket's other finalist, mask under the nose wearers. >> why do people keep their nose uncovered. thes no-- nostrils are the third easy yeses opening of the coronavirus toant wednesday i think you mean second. >> not i way i do. so after five rounds it all comes down to jeff bezos' growing net worth versus masks under the nose wearerrers. >> and without further ado, the winner of "the daily show's" 2020 bracket of bullshit pandemic edition is mask under the nose warnerrers. >> oh man, this was a well deserved win, roy. >> i couldn't agree with you more, kosta, just look at your dumb nostril s

bold words for bezos. he looks at his legacy, and some recommendations for how to treat the hundreds of thousands of company employees. a vaccination passport. some want to require it others including states like florida have banned it. in crypto validation. one day after a big debut, we hear from the crypto council of innovation. what he thinks about cryptocurrency going forward including legal and policy questions. this story in a moment. u.s. stocks jumped record highs amid signs of economic recovery. we are looking through all the data. take it away. >> green on the screen. tech outperforming. the nasdaq 100 actually ending at record highs once again. a big part of that was apple's gains. helping those major contributors. you know apple is the big heavyweight. you also saw gains in the semi conductor index. up a whopping 1.8 percent. this comes right in the heels of semi conductors saying the chip shortage, those guys should continue into -- should continue into 2022. we all want to know about the othe

in a statement yesterday, bezos writes, in part. quote. >>> joining me now, is cofounder of punch bowl news anna palmer. good morning! great to see you always. why don't we start with what bezos was talking about on the infrastructure plan. he is right a long-term challenge for america's corporations which is to say if we are not keeping up with other countries on things like broadband and airports and our ability to move goods across the country in an expeditious way, that means they have fewer opportunities here in the united states. >> it was definitely an interesting statement by jeff bezos. not somebody who necessarily comments publicly on issues of the day with a lot of regularity and a different position than the chamber of commerce and other business groups. a little bit of caution here. he is not saying i'm in for joe biden plan here. he is saying he is open to tax increases of some sort. he does not say how much or get into any specifics there. but definitely for the biden administration, a boost for their overall kind of

lastly, bezos left on a very bezos like note. he quotes a passage from a richard dawkins book that reads in part, staving off death is a thing that you have to work at he uses it to remind amazon that it needs to continue to work hard to stay distinctive, stay alive, keep working and innovativing, and that's a nod to the message in his first annual letter in 1997 where he laid out his philosophy that has guided him over the past 20 plus years. it must always be day one. back to you. >> that 1997 first letter was featured prom ninently in this letter to go back to the employment discussion, they hired 500,000 employees last year. half a million employees as other companies were shedding millions of employees in total, they hired 1.3 million people, now one of the largest employer at least here in the u.s it speaks to why the company is under such great scrutiny. >> and that's a great point. i'm glad you bring it up 1.3 million employees that amazon has that makes it the number two private employer in the country, and that is why w

bezos then reclaimed the crown as the world's richest can -- liz: do we get a commission? [laughter] >> he's worth now, by the way, $202 billion as when we last checked. and i think musk is at more than $78 billion. just chump change for these guys. it's interesting how, you know, we put a couple hundred billion dollars in his pocket, little old me and you. isn't thattic sick? here's the irony, tomorrow they don't do the stock split, they're all predicting it's coming in 2021, maybe tomorrow. you know, one thing that redler mentioned to us and it's a good point, or you know, they've been flat lining except for the recent pops for the last nine months despite good solid earnings. they're going to have solid earnings tomorrow. so it's obviously a technical factor with the share of the stock being at $3,000, being so high that retail can't get involved. there is not total unanimity on this stock splis stuff. we've talked to other investors, though they were kind of in the minority that say because you can buy fractional shares, you know, people who participated, i don't think

elon musk and jeff bezos taking aim at one another bezos's "blue origin" filed a complaint against nasa, challenging the award of a $3 billion moon lander contract to musk's tesla nasa originally signalled multiple companies would participate in building the mooner landers nasa says the choice to only pick one company was due to lower-than-expected funding. blue origin telling cnbc the awarded contract is, quote, flawed and, quote, nasa moved the goalpost at the last minute. musk as he does firing back on twitter saying the reason bezos didn't get the contract was because he, quote, quantity get it up, in orbit, to market they are not known for holding back when it comes to fighting for their businesses, so it will be interesting to see how it continues to play ut. >> we've seen corporate trash talk in so many industries, the soda wars, obviously boeing airbus, but this is literally about going to the moon. those are big spoils and we can't wait to see what happens with it. we will take a break one more look ahead when we come back to tonight's big earnings nek "techcheck" is back in a

this is that like you know jeff bezos got a lot richer because of amazon this last year but i know amazon saved my life. so did it him getting rich necessarily making me worse off whereas even maybe make me better off. well i mean it's the diversions in the amazon warehouses who work for. a lot of pressure very low wages that are certainly not. doing well because or better because business is doing so well i mean we have the i pads on have i think a very well. let me finish and of course here they'd never get. over the last 40 years or so we have certain industries which menaced next to extract the reins from from the rest of the economy to a large profits which are way above what a normal kind of company makes and that is at the at the cost and at the detrimental effect of other parts of society yes i do think so so let me just bringing said i am economic numbers just bringing the people who have a lot of money in this conversation so my scope go out and then i'm going to actually turn the argument from millionaires and billionaires who want to pay a wealth tax they want to pay money nic

this is that like you know jeff bezos got a lot richer because of amazon this last year but i know amazon saved my life. so did it him getting rich necessarily making me worse off whereas even maybe make me better off. well i mean it's the diverse because in the amazon warehouse there is work for. a lot of pressure very low wages that are certainly not. doing well because or better because business is doing so well i mean we have the i pads on have i think a very well. let me finish and of course i hear that they'd never get on over the last 40 years or so be have certain industries which minutes now has to extract the reigns from from the rest of the economy to large profits which are way above what a normal kind of company makes and that is at the at the cost and at the detriment of other parts of society yes i do think so so let me just bringing said i am economic numbers disappointing that people who have a lot of money in this conversation so my scope go out and then i'm going to have to turn in the argument from millionaires and billionaires who want to pay a wealth tax they want to

jeff bezos has the rocket company blue origin. its protesting nasa's latest contract with elon musk's spacex. nasa is moving forward with the spacex as the sole contractor for the human landing system, citing costs but blue origin filed a protest saying nasa downplayed technical challenges in the spacex proposal. in nasa's own words, it has made a high-risk selection. their decision eliminates opportunities for competition significantly narrows the supply base and not only delays but endangers americans' return to the moon. not uncommon to dispute a government contract. what is uncommon here, guys, elon musk's response. musk on twitter replying to the news mocked blue origin, quote, can't get it up to orbit, lol. and there's more. musk also retweeting a picture of the blue origin lunar design known as blue moon with moon whited out and the world balls instead. so think rocket science meets locker room. by the way, a third rocket company also filed a protest. the government has 100 days whether to decide whether this has any merit.

another massive ipo at the nasdaq a $30 billion video game company backed by kkr making its debut and bezos addresses his shareholders in what could become a significant change in amazon strategy. we dig in on that. >> also a big day for tech stocks nasdaq outperforming broader indices pss&p all-time high and nvidia and others, faang plus index up better than 1%. tesla in the red and gamestop down 6%, jon >> today's most important tech story, day two for coinbase. watching crypto's newest king. the company opening for trade yesterday afternoon. $381 a share 52% above the reference price rising as high as $429 before settling the day lower as of yesterday's close, $86 billion, roughly, market cap made from the most valuable publicly traded exchange in the u.s. if you think that's what it is cathie wood jumping into this trade as well buying $246 million worth of shares to add to the investment funds. so many storylines in tech right now, carl, that hinge on the idea that the rules of a particular area have changed whether that is cloud or ai. work from anywhere cloud gaming platforms, commut

your bossjeff bezos is handing his successor a post pandemic pivot do you think he will be up to the task?— do you think he will be up to the task? ., ., . ., ., , the task? from all indications i have seen. _ the task? from all indications i have seen, yes. _ the task? from all indications i have seen, yes. andy - the task? from all indications i have seen, yes. andy jassyl the task? from all indications| i have seen, yes. andy jassy is i have seen, yes. andyjassy is a strong leader, a long—time hammers on employee. he has worked withjeff and knows the company well and the company knows him well. as well, dave clark leading the consumer retail business is a well—known amazonian. even beyond a single person, the culture and the ways of operating are very well established by amazon. and it should also be said that geoff pazo's isn't stepping that far away and i'm sure he will have away and i'm sure he will have a reasonably close finger on the pulse of the company. i was auoin to the pulse of the company. i was going to ask _ the pulse of the company. i was going to ask about _

this is that like you know jeff bezos got a lot richer because of amazon this last year but i know amazon saved my life. so did it him getting rich necessarily making me worse off whereas even maybe make me better off. well i mean it's the diversions in the amazon warehouses who work for. a lot of pressure very low wages that are certainly not. doing well because or better because business is doing so well i mean we have the i pads on have i think a very well. let me finish and of course i hear we have to get. over the last 40 years or so be have certain industries which minutes now has to extract the reigns from from the rest of the economy to large profits which are way above what a normal kind of company makes and that is at the at the cost and at the detrimental effect of other parts of society yes i do think so so let me just bringing said i am economic numbers just bringing the people who have a lot of money in this conversation so my scope go out and then i'm going to actually turn in the argument from millionaires and been asked who wants to pay a wealth tax they want to pay money

the house antitrust subcommittee has talked to jeff bezos. he testified about antitrust issues and faced questions about whether or not amazon uses data from their site of popular products picking up steam to then make their own amazon brand. he says they have rules against that at the company, but cannot guarantee it will have never been violated. to create their own amazon back-- brand products but amazon is dreck the responding to the small business coalition saying they are brand and their third-party sellers actually complement each other on their site and they also say in a statement given to his foxbusiness that small and do-- bedside business sales are growing faster than amazon first party sales and we are waiting to see what type of anti- trust crackdown will come out of congress. it's something democrats in the house and senate are looking at, but we really don't have any idea how far they are willing to go and whether or not it would force amazon to separate its own brand of its online marketplace. stuart? stuart: that is the thre

charles, one of the biggest winners had to be jeff bezos. i know amazon stock has made him obviously a billionaire many times over and a worth over $200 billion. the richest man on the planet. that is a nice backdrop, huh? >> it's an amazing backdrop. not long ago, i was looking at photos when they first started. if you would have said then what he has been able to create with his team now is absolutely remarkable. you know, after the third quarter, he's given up the ceo role, going to be the chairman. he's going out on just a magnificent high that really is unparalleled. when you go back to the robert barons and adjust for inflation, never anyone like jeff bezos. he's young enough and hungry enough to make his mark in other places. that's what he's looking for next. >> neil: so you know, it's interesting. we talk about amazon and the fact that he's embraced i believe tim cook at apple as well, the higher corporate rates that the president wants to push right now. the rates of 28%. how would it impact these guys? would they be able to sell a

we made jeff bezos richer than elon musk, i believe. i believe before the stock moved that musk was nominally the richest man in the world. after the stock moved, bezos, you know, today, took that lead at something like $197 billion, [laughter] i can't even believe i'm saying that, it's so out there. so, i guess thursday is the day you've got to pay attention to. again, you know, usually when you get moves like this , there's obviously there's a lot of people believe this is going to happen at some point in 2021. we'll see if it happens this thursday. amazon had no comment, but, you know, it is an mazing story when you look back at it. liz, i can't tell you, you know, if you are a historian of this business, of caltech and wall street, amazon is that amazing success story, ipo's at about $18 a share, goes up to about $50 a share during the dot com bubble and then an online bookseller and goes down to about $7 or $8 a share after the bubble broke and a lot of people were dismissing this business model and a lot of other dot com, and from

jeff bezos backing a corporate tax rate increase and the infrastructure plan. now everyone is parsing his words. may have taken issue with the fact that the world's richest man has been mute on personal taxes and believes amazon would probably avoid higher taxes no matter what the rate is because of their deft use of loopholes. i want to bring in ironside director bear any knapp. while everyone is focused on bezos comments i want to focus on mark benioff's comments, that 28% would be too high. he lamented on global competition. your thoughts? >> there is a couple of important points here. i mean we didn't go from middle of the road competitive position in terms of corporate taxes to a very competitive position. we went from basically dead last, the highest statutory rate, second highest average tax rate and third highest effective tax rate in the world to the middle of the pack, something like 17 in the oecd. biden plan would take us back to the bottom of the barrel, basically the highest effective tax rate in oecd. so there is a real competitiveness question,

now jeff bezos is challenging it. he filed a protest with the government accountability office, accusing nasa of moving the goalposts for bidders at the last minute. musk, who owns spacex, fired back with a tweet that said, “can't get it up to orbit lol.” [ laughter ] that's the guy who's hosting “saturday night live.” [ laughter ] a feud between jeff bezos and elon musk is how we all die, right? [ laughter ] they're eventually going to get nuclear weapons and we will be killed. i have an idea. instead of astronauts, let's send jeff bezos and elon musk to the moon. [ applause ] that's right. first person to get a jar of peanut butter delivered there gets the contract. loser has to stay on the moon forever. winner, too. [ laughter ] we had some disappointing news today for thrill-seekers and drug-takers. for the second year in a row, the burning man festival, and the annual running of the bulls in pamplona, spain, have been cancelled. the mayor of pamplona said that with covid, it's just too dangerous to do som

>> there is no question that jeff bezos has been instrumental in our turn around. we needed fresh ideas and he came in with fresh ideas. >> reporter: and money. >> we'll talk about money -- >> reporter: the money wasn't the most important thing? >> no. the money was not the most important thing. the most important thing woo a fundamental change in our strategy. up to that point, we were focused on covering the region around washington. so when jeff came, he said this strategy that you have is -- may have been fine in the past, but it is not fine today. and now we have the opportunity to become national and international because we don't have to distribute physical papers all over the place. we can do it digitally. anybody anywhere in the world could read the "washington post." >> reporter: i didn't realize when he bought the "washington post," he already had a strategy. he studied it and came to you with a plan. >> there is no question. he does his research. >> reporter: over the last 15 years, over 2,000 newspapers in the u.s., that's one in five, have gone out of

why would the stock split be good for jeff bezos net worth? well, essentially, right now, amazon is not in the dow jones industrial average. it's trading at about whatever it is, $3,100 a share. i remember when amazon was close to a penny stock after the dot c om bubble burst, so talk about peoples overtime, but if the stock does split, it'll get into the dow, there could be increased buying, because people can afford the stock, and that would allow jeff bezos to take a pretty significant lead over musk as the world's richest man. again, thursday is the day they announce earnings. there's tons of speculation that they are going to announce a stock split on thursday. i'm not saying they will. amazon has no comment, there's also speculation if it doesn't come thursday it may come some time in 2021, but be sure to listen to the analyst call. my guess is that bezos will have to address if and when he'll do a stock split, if they don't do it, and it could move shares even further. guys, back to you. >> brian: charlie whoever comes second place in t

tom: a marshall plan for jeff bezos? sonali: for the country. he believes that americans and the united states have lost belief in their institutions, everything from government, to schools, to business. >> this has been the ongoing theme this morning, the political nature of the bank in this particular letter. looking at the google threat, is he looking for more regulation for tech that is trying to get into the financial sector? is he looking for an acquisition? sonali: both. he signals a want to buy something. he's been doing that for a while. the specific interest is interesting and he does lay out the size of a ball -- of evolving competitors as a $5.6 trillion estimate about their size in this space. it's not just technology, its other shadow banking rivals, people in private credit, private equity, regulation is a part of this. we've been talking about regulation for days, but it's also the recognition, the first page of the report is j.p. morgan return on tangible common equity, how much it has risen since 2008. there is a question of ho

. >>> amazon's ceo jeff bezos is supporting president biden's plan to raise the corporate tax rate to pay for a massive infrastructure plan. bezos says he supports the administration's focus on building up the country's infrastructure which would benefit his company but republicans say higher taxes will hurt jobs and say biden is going too far beyond roads and bridges in his plan. >>> time for a look now at your wednesday weather. moa annow is expected today in some parts of montana got six inches of snow yesterday. meanwhile, heavy rain and stong storms expected from the western great lakes to the gulf coast. the strongest of those storms are expected in missouri, which could see tornadoes and damaging winds. checking today's high temperatures, only 48 in seattle, warmer than usual for most of the midwest and the east coast remains mild with clear skies. >>> coming up, the sticker shock where gas prices are approaching $6 a gallon. >>> also ahead, the women accusing a star nfl quarterback of sexual misconduct shared their stories publicly. >>> and the video that looks more like a hol

. >> i thought it was bittersweet. >> maybe it was bittersweet. >> yeah. >> don't worry >> bezos is sure he is going to live forever he's not worried about - >> a crowd guy. >> colonizing the planet >> speaking of sweet, guy, coke, 55 cents beats 50. revenue ahead. 6% organic revenue growth. and case volume, jim, back to march, 2019 levels although they don't boost the guide, in part because they are remaining cautious, given what we know about covid cases around the world. >> right i mean they do fewer lockdowns but what's amazing is you have this thing called on prem and off prem, when you are on prem, at a restaurant, in america, if it has, this is incredible, if it has a drive-through lane, the numbers are extraordinary. that's why i like chipotle, i like mcdonald's and the numbers here, why isn't this stock up more 6% organic growth. man, that's fantastic for coca-cola. and i know he doesn't want to extrapolate so maybe the lazy people just simply have to say, all right, i'm going to use his guidance forget his guidance. he's, this is on fire. this stock should be higher, carl good

"forbes" magazine says amazon's jeff bezos tops its list of richest people at $177 billion. at number two, tesla's elo >> o'donnell: 2020 was a great year for billionaires. "forbes" magazine says amazon's jeff bezos tops its list of richest people at $177 billion. at number two, tesla's elon musk, bill gates, and facebook's mark zuckerberg are also in the top five. get this, warren buffet dropped out of the top five for the first time in two decades. but don't worry, he's worth more than $28 billion than last year. the ranks of billionaires grew by more than 30% and now includes kim kardashian, and bumble c.e.o. whitney wolfe herd. and now to a dramatic rescue in the north sea today. a dutch cargo ship caught in dangerously high seas almost capsized threatening the 12 crew members. a norwegian coast guard helicopter raced to the rescue, airlifting most of the crew off the deck, but a few had to be plucked from the sea. can you imagine? well, tonight, everyone is safe. coming up next, it's better than superman's cape-- how a robe can transform a child fighting a serious illne

your read. >> let's look at what jeff bezos is doing here. he understands corporate taxes are going up. there's no way around that. i think he's trying to cozy up to the administration right now, he's trying to gain some political capitol because joe biden has been very critical of amazon and how little tax they pay. he's been attacked by bernie sanders as well. so he says, all right. i'll go along with this because it is popular only because people don't know what is actually behind this. so that is what he does there. let me say what i think is really important to him. it's more about not losing deductions for things like r&d research and development an capital expenditures. if they can hold back on that, won't be back for sam -- amazon. if the global minimumtation doesn't -- why are countries like ireland going to cooperate with that. >> charles: it's nuts. >> people are just going to move to get around this. >> charles: i read a lot of estimates. for the most part, 7, 8, 9%, 10% hit. higher taxes. what does that mean for individuals? if t

, they are hearing the issues but we saw jeff bezos spoke out about admini administration's policy. so management is realizing this is a real issue they want to get a foothold in front of now that's aside from the investor standpoint if you're an investor, we're happy and especially younger people are looking at it this is somethingyou want to take a strong look at and for management, they are doing that but it's something we want to keep a watchful eye on. >> victoria, what does this mean in terms of automation that's something amazon prides itself on since it was founded they found more efficient ways of do g doing things how would they respond to the efforts if they were more successful for the potential of more in the future does that make them more likely to replace humans with robots? >> leslie, this is a factor when employees are deciding on whether they want to unionize or not, that they may tend to forget and it just needs to be considered along with all other factors. so if they move towards unionization, they have to consider what the costs are for amazon they have to con