CNBC's Heavy-Handed Advocacy For Wall Street Is Painfully Evident in This Neil Barofsky Interview

Heavy handed and amateurish performance by the 'journalists' was the name of the game in this interview which CNBC conducted with former TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky.

I think Barofsky was taken aback and kept off balance for much of the interview, and did not present some of the alternatives to TARP that could have been discussed in a more intelligent and less adversarial venue.  I would have thought a former federal prosecutor would have been tougher, but I think he came in expecting a rational discussion and not a tag team group takedown.

This performance represents the level of journalistic quality and objectivity of its parent NBC, which is one of the corporate arms of General Electric.   And such a disregard for any pretense to journalistic principles is no longer the exception.

Maybe I am missing something but it seems astonishing that a major financial network can feature a stock advisor who bragged on tape about how he used reporters for planting stories favorable to his market manipulation to cheat the public when he ran a hedge fund, and apparently sees nothing wrong with it, up to and including breaking the law.

How cynical can a people get? How blindly worshipful of 'success?'

This calls to mind the interview that CNBC had with the California Attorney General who had the presence of mind to just stop the interview and ask the 'journalist,' "Are you pimping for (State Street Bank) the defendant?"

There was a time indeed when the financial journalists were paid for pimping for Wall Street, as recounted in the Congressional testimony of A. Newton Plummer, who had kept a suitcase full of the canceled checks which he had delivered to almost every journalist on the Street. The pool operators of the 1920's paid financial journalists to run stories favorable to their market aims.

A. Newton Plummer subsequently wrote a book about it, and his testimony to the Congress, that had a very limited run. I picked up a copy during my research phase in the late 1990's.

So as you can see, the integrity of journalism in reporting financial news is not merely an idealistic and theoretical concern during periods of excess and subsequent change. It is one of the major elements of corruption and therefore of reform. And laws were put in place to ensure fairness and diversity in the news media. And they were much later knocked down during 'the great deregulation' when ideology and PR campaigns trumped experience once again.

Do people still go to journalism schools and subscribe to certain principles that we used to take for granted that would be put forward if not always upheld?

How are the mighty fallen.

Here is a link to the interview at the CNBC site in case there are problems with access to it here.

Note:  Business Insider also covered this interview.  Their story here includes some of the tweets which Barofsky sent after the show.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Rally Intensified on Fed's QE Statement

Gold and silver were rallying even as stocks were declining, when the Fed released its minutes from the most recent meeting this afternoon. The Fed is concerned about the lack of growth in the economy and signalled its willingness to invoke additional quantitative easing 'fairly soon.'

This intensified the rally in gold and silver and helped stocks to lose some of their early losses.

Gold has stuck a close above the big resistance, and now needs to take out the trendlines around 1665 to get some legs.

Stocks are running on liquidity and hot money expectations, and not much else.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Pop Goes the Fed

The Fed minutes caused the market to reverse its correction today as the Fed signalled its concern about the lack of growth in the economy, and its willingness to engage in additional quantitative easing 'fairly soon.'

Otherwise it is still a dull market.

Interviews with 'The New Economists' From Mindful Money

Mindful Money has published an eclectic collection of short interviews with those whom they describe as 'the new economists.'

These include Steve Keen, Unlearning Economics, Positive Money, Modern Monetary Mechanics, Pragmatic Capitalism, and a little known Café which they describe as:

An anonymous blogging site with a pleasant relaxed feel ("an oasis of civility in an increasingly uncivil world", the site includes images from the Café's signature dishes in the left margin), wry humour and a global readership. Jesse has a strong interest in reining in the banks and reforming economics and incorporates some stunning graphs into his blog posts.

However in a a recent, somewhat resigned post, he wrote: "I do not think the US is ready to insist on serious reform. It will take another crisis. The anti-regulatory slogans are too effectively ingrained in the public psyche. And self-deception is a powerfully addictive state of mind. Especially for those whose expansive lifestyles depend on it."

I don't feel as resigned as exasperated at times. But that is the nature of a sea change which happens slowly and quietly over a long interval until one suddenly notices it and, voilà.

Do not expect profundity and lengthy expositions of economic thought from yours truly, because after all it was a Q&A and I was able to give what I thought were plain answers that struck to the heart of the questions right 'off the cuff' as they say. We become lost in a fog of words, at a time when action is becoming ever more important on the individual level.

The menu of answers should surprise no regular patron of Le Café. But I see in reading it now that I did manage a quip or two to quicken the sauce of the dismal science.

Q. If you could travel back in time and change something in the financial world that would benefit society, what would it be?

A. I would help Alan Greenspan achieve a wonderfully rewarding career as a professional clarinetist.

And then I would skip forward ten years or so and stop the Bankers' campaign to repeal Glass Steagall.

Enjoy.

You can read the entire interview here and the entire piece with links to the entire collection of interviews here.