Thursday, October 2, 2008

Tag Teaming Alongside Bob Murphy

Yesterday, Bob announced at his blog, Free Advice, that he has placed CNBC contributor, Patricia Chadwick, right next to CNBC's Jim Cramer, on his never read again list.

The sin that warranted this banishment by Bob, according to Bob was :

I have criticized Chadwick before. But that was nothing. In today's "article," she offers absolutely zero arguments. She simply asserts that the American people are idiots--though understandably so, in Chadwick's condescending pity--for thinking the Paulson Plan a bad deal. And then, in order to placate those readers who maybe
wanted some evidence or something, Chadwick links them to a Tom Friedman (!!) oped on why Americans should support the bailout. You know, noted economist and
successful day trader Tom Friedman?

So I wandered over to CNBC to get a sense for what was going on. And Bob, the only thing I can say is LET ME IN THE RING!

Not only does she not provide any sound argument, but in her appeal to authority she not only uses Tom Friedman ( And Bob, this guy Friedman is an analyst. He writes in his column that he's frightened for the country and it has happened before: "I’ve been frightened for my country only a few times in my life: In 1962, when, even as a boy of 9, I followed the tension of the Cuban missile crisis." The guy was frightened at 9, Bob. Not for himself, but for his country! AT 9! So what were you doing at 9, Bob? I didn't even, independent of Ludwig von Mises, discover the Regression Theorem until I was 11. )

In addition to Friedman, she drags out Pimco's Bill Gross as an expert:

Unfortunately, despite dire warnings from sage and respected investors such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gross...


Oh yeah, the sage and respected Bill Gross. That's the same guy who jumped up and down on CNBC screaming that the government needed to bailout Freddie and Fannie. And we learned only later that the Pimco portfolio he managed was loaded with so much Freddie and Fannie paper that the portfolio increased over a billion dollars after the bailout was announced. And she thinks this Newport Beach hustler can be trusted?

I am only giving her a pass on Buffett because at the time she wrote, Buffett had only pigged out on Goldman Sachs and had not yet feasted at the table of that other insider monster G.E., and, also at the time, it still wasn't clear that Buffett is likely to be the largest beneficiary of Paulson's Plan.

So Bob, I got your back on this one. I think we are ready.



-Robert Wenzel

1 comment:

  1. I've been scared to death of the Regression Algorithm since I was 7. I still am. (Not scared for myself but for the country.)

    It's just a matter of time before the plutocracy falls. Entrenched power cannot survive stupidity, arrogance and delusion. The intelligent, decent people - maybe 70% of the rest of the country - needs to be ready to pick up the pieces.

    ReplyDelete