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How TV Seduces the Best

By Henri - Posted on 20 February 2009

Or if You Imagine it is Easy to Say the Right Thing Inside the Fish Bowl Try it Sometime

Rick Santelli is one of the more soundly grounded guys on the babble box these days. His views are generally measured and defined by his genuine insights into the markets and the economy behind them. He is also a bit more passionate than the run of the mill financial analyst on CNBC. So it was no real surprise when he expostulated dramatically about President Obama’s attempt to fix the home foreclosure problem. Some people then seized on his comments and critiqued them a bit harshly.

The Reynard philosophy is: Do not suffer fools. Mr. Santelli is as far from a fool as anyone asked to give instant analysis related to complex matters can be in the light of hindsight.

Today he has my respect for arguing one uncomfortable side of an issue of great complexity with some real clarity. He did add to the debate. We are rushing to judgment with a lot of spending programs that are little more than bets placed on the roulette wheel of the future.

While the arguments are sometimes simplified to emotional appeals on both sides of these issues we are still placing those bets. This is a volatile environment and conflagrations will start up and burn themselves out quickly enough. The issue here is no longer caution. We have cast caution into the winds of chaos after the demise of Lehman taught us that we do not know the consequences of our own actions.

The issue here is how much monetary power we can bring to bear on actually rebuilding our economic base and how much will be wasted. If we waste too much the world will suffer immensely. That is because we remain the one real hope for a great and glorious future for humanity. It was our embracing Science and the Technical skills that made it possible which formed the last century’s history of economic, social, ethical and moral progress. If you think that has had no meaning in this world then you are either a fool or a French Philosopher.

Rick Santelli is neither, just a very quick thinking and seemingly decent man with few pretensions that are visible in his all too visible position. TV has brought history forward a bit too far and we are now living it in the instant it occurs. Analysis takes a little longer for most of us. That is why I have learned to love my keyboard. It restrains my impulses and immediate reactions immensely.

Maybe we all need a little more time to consider our actions before we take them. But history is pushing hard and the future is at stake. Praying for calm in the middle of a tornado is seldom answered in the affirmative by any gods I have ever worshiped. Maybe all we can expect is honest opinions expressed honestly to eventually result in some better choices than those facing us today. The uncommon decency of the citizens of this nation will prevail in the end. Rick and I and the rest of you all depend on that fact. That and the truth of this ancient phrase, “This too shall pass.”