The CNBC Echo Chamber
This morning I turned on CNBC to see if anything dramatic was about to happen to the Dow or the dollar or unemployment or GM, Citigroup, Bank of America, or any other zombie escapees from George Romero films.
Instead, there was former GE chairman Jack Welch (guest host for the morning), Joe Kernan, Carl Quintanilla, and Becky Quick – all of whom had been in a position to warn us of the grave perils of the economy but none of whom in fact did – all bewailing the intrusions of the Obama administration into business matters such as executive compensation, loopholes for companies sending jobs overseas, healthcare, global warming, etc.
Since they invite e-mail but then ignore it, here’s the one I sent at 7:30 a.m.
*
To CNBC “Squawk Box”
I can’t believe the discussion I’ve been hearing, bemoaning the socialist intrusions into business under Obama. “Well, they won the election,” said Jack Welch. And he’s scared.
Okay, what if they had lost the election? What would be happening now?
The Republicans you so fervently crave controlled all three branches of government for six years and controlled the White House and Congress for the majority of the last quarter century. What did they do? They granted you all the things you’re demanding now, they gave your favorite corporations every single thing they wanted, they got rid of any semblance of meaningful regulation and subverted what was left.
With your help, they blew up the global economy.
Then Bush and Paulson pushed America into the socialism you’re bewailing via TARP. Obama was not in office, remember?
All of you were in positions where you could have warned us of the dangers. None of you did so. And now you’re going to blame it on Obama, who was a junior senator from Illinois?
Get real. Something had to be done. Much still has to be done. Moves to limit corporate tax loopholes and obscene executive pay and bonuses are absolutely necessary because there is widespread public fury at lavishing taxpayers’ dollars on the very people and institutions whose greed, shortsightedness, and lack of principle got us into this mess.
You get government intrusion or you get pitchfork intrusion – take your pick.
Obama is a highly intelligent, very reasonable centrist (entirely too reasonable, some of us think) who will work this out insofar as that’s possible.
4 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Excellent! Too bad they’re not bright enough to see the reason in it…
Comment by Lynn — May 16, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
True, but we cross-posted this on DailyKos, whose audience is probably bigger than that of Squawk Box.
Comment by Al — May 16, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
The people whose greed, hubris and sheer rapacity created this crisis will go to extraordinary lengths to explain why it’s someone else’s fault. Even though it isn’t. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, for who are we to judge?
Comment by Steve Alber — May 20, 2009 @ 8:41 am
Ah, so. Who indeed are we to judge? Therefore (and I assume this is what you are suggesting) we should solemnly pray over them as soon as they are cut down from the gallows.
Comment by Al — May 20, 2009 @ 3:49 pm