CNBC Just Doesn’t Get It

Did you see the interview CNBC did with Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb yesterday?  Both are widely respected economists and analysts who have been dead-on predicting the crisis we’re in.  And both were treated like side-show freaks by the CNBC babbling heads yesterday.

The CNBC talkers insist on referring to Roubini and Taleb as “Doctor Doom” and “The Black Swan Guy”, constantly belittle their outlooks as “doom-mongering,” and pestering them for investments when both gentlemen are saying the entire financial system has to be reformed in a multi-year process.

Obviously, I have disagreements with both Roubini and Taleb.  I like precious metals as an investment here, I think agriculture is looking better all the time, and I think that if you want to own energy, you can do it with dividend-paying stocks that will pay you to wait (as long as you have some patience).  But I respect both men enough to know that, when they are talking about a deep structural crisis in the world economy, you don’t ask them for stock tips. 

And these CNBC anchorpeople (I don’t know what to call them — they aren’t newsmen, are they?) can’t stop asking for stock tips.  It’s a compulsion with them … it’s almost surreal.

This is a prime example of how Wall Street doesn’t get the crisis of its own making — it’s Marie Antoinette all over again.

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