Wednesday, March 04, 2009

White House vs. Economics

Have you noticed something interesting happening in the past couple of weeks? Two popular TV money guys... Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer have railed against the Obama administration's economic policies from different angles. Santelli attacked the "stimulus" plan from the Chicago Stock Exchange floor with the agreement of what sounded like all of the traders working that day.











Cramer from his show (and then the Today show) where he said that the President was destroying the wealth of the United States.












The common factor between both attacks? In the following days White House press secretary Robert Gibbs felt the need to respond and attack both men in return.
Gibbs said that Santelli had no idea "what he's talking about".
Of Cramer, Gibbs said his opinions were "geared to a very small audience."
Now, I am not certain but I think it would probably be fair to say that in general Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer... do know what they are talking about. And the size of Cramer's audience has nothing to do with whether he is right or not. These are men who make their living off of our economy ... perhaps instead of flippantly tossing aside their opinions we should take them to heart. I have still not found the group of economists who have supported this bailout...but a cursory search of the internet will find a flood of professional economists who are against the "stimulus". On another point... could you imagine if President Bush's press secretary had responded in like fashion to every reporter who criticized his administration? Maybe if the President and his "men" spent less time attacking political and economic pundits like Rush Limbaugh and now, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer (and anyone else who disagrees with anything the Obama administration does)... they might actually be able to accomplish something.

1 comment:

Brandon8 said...

This proves the ignorance of the new administration. Aren't these White House officials too busy to be responding to every little criticism? Also, Cramer's audience may not be large compared to other shows, but he is WIDELY known across the U.S., and when he says to "sell" or "buy" a specific stock, you can bet that by the time the market opens the following day, those stocks are significantly affected (for the better or worse).
By the way, how come I haven't heard anything come from Paul Volker? His policies helped pull us out of the mess Carter left the U.S. in. Isn't he the head of Obama's economic team?