it should have been in the life cycle of developing this application. >> shelby, it was always going to be hard to get the young, healthy people involved. that's why there are costs if they don't. but how much more complicated now will it be when a lot of people look at the website that's not even really working? >> that's a good question. the obama administration needs 2.7 billion young americans to sign up for health care. when they go to the website, young people like technology, they trust it. if they go to the website and it's not working, they'll probably get discouraged f they're already on the fence. who knows if they'll ever sign up. >> if you've talking to fellow millinials. what are they telling you? >> number one, they have a lack of awareness leading up to the exchange's opening, three out of four even had no idea they existed or had very it is idea. they also lack money. money is the number one reason young people don't buy insurance. >> let's listen. >> how much do you know about the health care exchanges? >> i don't know anything about it. >> i just don't know about i

also to a senator -- senator shelby's office has confirmed the existence of a suspicious package. the hill trying to get some work done regarding the gun bill today. but all of it happening ahead of this carney presentation in a few moments. that does it for us. we'll hand it off to the fast "halftime report." >> it's a tongue twister. welcome to the "halftime report." we're waiting for jay carney to t take to the podium to discuss the two letters that have tested positive for ricin, one to the president and one to the senator. we'll bring it to you live. perhaps one of the reasons we sea market weakness. four hours to go until the close. here's where we stand now. we are off the lows. dow jones industrials average lower by 148 points. it had been down nearly 200 points. 14,608. a decline of 1%. the s&p and nasdaq are lowing by 1.5 and nearly 2%. they have apple in them. that's probably why they are outperforming on the downside even more than the dow. the nasdaq now below its 50-day moving average. we're also going to be talking a lot about gold and copper to see what they are te

we have senator richard shelby. he will talk to us about why he voted against it. and what comes next when it comes to fixing america's miss cal issues. that interview just ahead. >>> up in next kwk kwk, don't start your day without knowing the names that will make you money. joe has your list of stocks to watch right after the break. at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 hours can go by before i realize tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that i haven't even looked away from my screen. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that kind of focus... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that's what i have when i trade. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...helps me keep an eye on what's really important to me. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 it's packed with tools that help me work my strategies

>> i think i've taken shelby like a big shelf. >> a shelf. a wooded shelf. >> the ground war for speedy delivery as the battle for your holiday dollar heats up. >> hey. >> janet shamlin, nbc news, new york. >> wow. pretty cool stuff there. pretty interesting technology and only -- you said five bucks? >> yeah. but i tell you, what's old is new again. i'm old enough to remember cosmo.com back in the late '90s, early 2000s this model, local delivery for -- >> you played with fluze, the whoopi goldberg currency. >> the idea wasn't terrible. the chief technology of that founded max delivery.com that's still running in new york. what's interesting is that this time you got a big company like ebay, trying to make this take off. they bought a company, european couple called shuttle that does this. trying to expand as many as two dozen cities within a few months. the model could be different this time because local information is so precious so maybe there's more in it for them than trying to make money on the delivery. >> one more nail in the coffin

you saw them here on "street signs," from a shelby mistalk to a vintage hot rod. found as the guys find and fix cars, cnbc prime. >> look at that, 3,000 votes, half of you, 51%, 51.7%, said stocks would be higher and 49% said lower. it takes -- >> what does that tell you? >> takes a buyer and a seller to make a market. we love it. >> it's a crap shoot. >>> i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange where history may be in the books today. bill? >> no, it's that way. never get that right. i'm bill griffith, and unless we have a serious turnaround in these final 60 minutes of trading, maria, the dow is poised to close at a new all-time high so stick around. you may be watching history today, folks. >> absolutely. the dow up 133 points. right to bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. the market came out of the gates strong and stayed strong, bob. >> 14,198. the old intraday historic high and now the only suspense, 14,164, the closing high. looks pretty good that we're going to do that. there's the dow. that's what maria is talking about, boom

. >> senator shelby, thank you. welcome, governor. would you describe the portfolio of the federal reserve as unprecedented, the size of it today? >> yes, senator. >> have you -- you're an economist and you've been on the fed and you also are the chairman of the economic advi advisers to president clinton. have you looking back in recent history, the last 30, 40 years, have you noticed any portfolio of the fed approaching what it is today? >> not at the federal reserve. >> that's what i mean. >> but other central banks. >> i'm asking about the federal reserve of the united states of america. >> no, i have not, senator. >> okay. would you describe what you're doing here by -- you call it quantitative easing, a term you make up, i guess, we all make up terms, but is that a stimulus for the economy, tool? you used the term "monetary tool", is that what you would call it to help augment, stimulate the economy? >> it is a tool that is intended to push down longer term interest rates. >> yes, ma'am. i understand that. >> and to stimulate de

also senator shelby's office confirming the existence of a suspicious package. jay carney will speak at that lectern on the other side of this break. [ male announcer ] there are people who find their own path. and never back down. who believe the american dream doesn't just happen, it's something you have to work for. ♪ we're for those kinds of people. because we're that kind of airline. and we never stop looking for a better way. it's how we've grown into america's largest domestic airline. we are southwest. welcome aboard. >>> take a look at the markets here. we were down close to 200 points in the early part of this session. currently down 142 on the dow. s&p's down about 24. we broke a level right around 1,557. some of the bulls appeared to get a little more concerned just on technical damage. we're at 1,550 now. down about 24 handles. the nasdaq is where a lot of the pain is centered today, largely because of apple. we were at 421 at the open. fell down to 406. this comes after both lazard and goldman said that the coming quarter actually not just the ma

[laughs] >> black shelby. >> oh, my god. that is wicked. this looks like a rock star car. >> oh, this is a rock star car. >> since it's not done, it's got to be dirt cheap. i'm thinking 25,000. >> you want me to take $10,000 off? >> i can pay you 60,000 for cash today. >> ooh, you're reversing everything on me. >> oh, you think my car's weak? >> yeah. >> i think i will beat you. wouldn't that be sad? >> it ain't gonna happen. my name is jeff allen. i buy, fix, and flip cars. but i don't do it alone. i've got perry... meg... and eric.

shelby's comments are important because democrats would need to pick up only five republicans vote to clear procedural hurdles and bring yellen's nomination to a full senate vote. yellen's nomination needs only a simple majority. joining us this morning from washington is eamon afterers. this is getting back to some tense times in the senate when it comes to these nominations. we thought we had averted these issues. >> mccain threatening to pu put a whole here on janet yellen in the united states. they wanted to see more of these documents related to ben fwazzy. they wanted to see the survivors of benghazi testify on capitol hill. they would like more information as to what exactly happened there. they don't have any particular animous towards janet yellen herself. this is just the leverage they have to get this done. it's been a very bad week for for obama admin appointees. yesterday, the senate rejected mel watt, the housing agency nominee for the obama administration. it's a very rare thing for a sitting congressman to be rejected. but they did that yesterday in the senate. it's a

he might get tough questions from shelby or vitter or toume, wouldn't you think? tom, you with us still? >> yeah, hi. look, i think at the end of the day, this whole conversation on the sequester is -- there's a level of folks bei a bis disingenuous on this conversation. as scott said, there's no question that the sequester will be a hit from a gdp perspective in the u.s. but i think you have to remember, particularly with regard to the categories that it will hit, you know, it seems a little disingenuous to say that the first responders are going to get cut. i think you have responsibility for this budget and the sequester gives these departments responsibility. you can basically cut your budget however you see fit. and i think you'll be hard pressed to make an argument that you'll see first responders actually get cut. but make no mistake, we're building in about half a percentage point hit to gdp for 2013 from the sequester. >> scott, can i just come back on the major point that you're making that you believe ben bernanke will lay out a very dovish message for

all the major players on shelby, corker, barney frank. now comes bob kaiser with the rest of the story. for his new book and act of congress, he was given unprecedented behind the scenes access to chris dodd and barney frank and all the major players at the unbelievable horse trading, successes and many failure that built this into law. thank you for joining us, bob. >> thank you. >> the first horse trade i read about in the book, something that got to the community bankers and traded a billion and a half of deposit insurance money. >> it's a great story. camden fine president of the community bankers association. really sharp lobbyist. a guy from missouri, whose father was a personal friend of harry truman. and barney frank know each other for a long time. barney makes a speech at the press club in the spring of '09 inviting small banks to participate in the process. fein picks it up. thanks him. they start back channel. ends up in frank's office. frank said i need you. cam, let's make a deal. they make a deal. fein will keep it neutral

the shelby-dodd amendment, which passed with 90 votes. it basically ends too big to fail. it puts those provision, not only that, we require those discussions posing the risk to pay the bill for the unwinding of those institutions and when those resources ung run out, the industry has to pitch in. so, again, we'll have to test this at a certain point, but if you tried to do today, first of all, politically, you'd never do it. do you think the american public for 30 seconds would tolerate that kind of a vote again in politically, it's not a non-starter. also, legislatively, if you are read the bill, it prohibits exactly by law of doing what we did before. >> i don't want to put you on the spot, but maybe the biggest, most important question, what happened with the lone ranger? i mean. >> look at the grey hair here. >> i mean, that movie bombed. >> jay silver. i remember ris listening to it. >> the movie will list $200 million. are you in charge of those things, specifically? >> welcome to venture capital. >> a lot of bonds this year. >> we're having great successes as well.

to some of the problems other fed chairman and other fed nominees have had, for example, when rich shelby was the chairman on the ranking committee, that had to do with proilg unsatisfactory answers. at this point, i just don't see anything getting in the way of her confirmation. >> ip, did you see that mckenzie study? >> which mckennedy study? >> it said qe did nothing for the stock markets, but saved governments around the world $1.3 trillion in funding costs. >> i didn't see that, but i'm looking at the stock market 20% this year and -- >> check it out. it's a mckenzie study that says -- you know, mckenzie, i don't know if i believe it, but they somehow determined that it had nothing to do with the rise. but the funding costs, it was something like $1.3 trillion saved global government. .after reading that, i was thinking why not make it permanent? if you can get governments to run $1.3 trillion cheaper, then hey, let the good times roll. but -- >> swroe, this is a great question. i think actually they're going to get this question because a lot of people in the markets are asking this

but it was a shelby then. and so, what happened? we have the big crash in 2008. what does everyone, including folks on "squawk box" say about it? they say too much concentration in financial services creates too big to fail. puts us at bigger risk. and what's happened since 2008? the four biggest financial institutions are now 30% bigger than they were in 2008. >> senator, so this is all apples and oranges, though. every one of the banks, that ones involved, bear stearns, lehman, countrywide, wamu, indy mac. ing. they aren't the ones you are talking about t. ones are you talking about are the runs that were able to absorb the problems we had in the bank of america. what would we have done if they didn't absorb countrywide and peril, if j.p. morgan hasn't absorbed bear stearns and wamu didn't help with us wachovia, we'd be worse off. >> let's unpack that a little bit. look at the pieces we got here. remember that what this is about is whether or not the people who want to do the big tradeing should be able to get access to deposits? right. and that's part of what