Double-Late-Breaking, Friday-Afternoon Analysis: I enjoyed Rick Santelli¹s rant as much as anyone. Financial news has found its Howard Beale . It¹s likewise amusing to see the White House snap back at Santelli, as Marc just wrote about. Leaving aside the obvious hypocrisy (Santelli didn¹t get worked up when his bank-exec neighbors got bailed out), here¹s a less obvious bit: The stimulus also contains a huge mortgage-related giveaway to wealthy types exactly like the pit traders in Santelli's audience. Buried on page 111 is a clause raising the "jumbo-conforming limit" on government-backed mortgages from $625,500 to $729.750 in rich areas like New York, Washington DC, and Santelli's home of Chicago. This is a big deal because Fannie and Freddie are the only ones buying mortgages anymore, so it will have the effect of driving down interest rates on really big mortgages. (Good breakdown here ) The Regular Joes on whose behalf Santelli seemed to be ranting don¹t take out $730K mortgages.
But I¹ll bet CNBC anchors do. If I were Robert Gibbs, I would point this out. I might even have some fun by dubbing the provision " the Santelli Clause" to drive home the point.
Green, you are making things up and publishing them : "Santelli didn¹t get worked up when his bank-exec neighbors got bailed out".
Santelli railed against the original bank bailout in September, much more vociferously, than his mortgage plan rant yesterday. See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-1g0OZJIdk
How about a correction?
Railed against it? What he said was "I'm not making a judgment call either way." Sure he was vociferous, but that's to be his default setting.
Mr. Green,
The locals on the floor next to Santelli are not all wealthy. Some of them are clerks, others have lesser roles. They are not "Masters of the Universe." Please get your facts straight. If you do not know what you are talking about, please do not type. Please apologize and correct.
Thanks
Average salary for a floor trader in Chicago = $99,000 ... http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=Floor+Trader&l1=Chicago%2C+IL
Granted, we're not talking Rick Santelli wealthy here and, at that salary, one hopes they're not looking to qualify for a jumbo loan, but they're not exactly destitute. As for "Masters of the Universe", I know the term from Tom Wolfe's excellent "The Bonfire of the Vanities" which is about a bond trader in New York. Although you brought up the term and not Mr. Green, it may actually be quite applicable in this case.
You really have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. As another commenter pointed out, Santelli did oppose the TARP, so his "obvious hypocrisy" is actually just your total ignorance.
Second, you present the jumbo-conforming limit as some kind of gotcha, when Santelli is opposed to the bill it is contained in. Even if he did stand to profit from the clause your argument makes no sense. Also you say that Fannie and Freddie are "the only ones buying mortgages right now" with no data whatsoever to back it up. Finally, the super-rich traders Santelli is supposedly concerned with probably wouldn't be all that excited about an $103,000 increase in govt. backed mortgages.
Do a little research before you write something so blatantly uninformed next time.
LOL
I love how Green sh!ts the bed and then makes his own readers clean it up.
He seems to have disappeared...
Josh, i think you need to be careful here - Santelli has been against almost all of the major bailout plans, or at the very least been seriously skeptical of their abilities to work, from the outset. Of the CNBC crew, he's been the most vocal in this regard, and frequently gets into heated debates (arguments almost) with Steve Leeseman (among others) on the show about the merits of TARP, TALF, the quasi-nationalisation of the banks etc. You also need to look a bit more into the actual wording Santelli used on the now famous 'rant' this week - he specifically mentions that him and his floor traders dont want to bail out their "neighbours' mortgage, that has an extra bathroom, and can't pay their bills". The 'extra bathroom' phrase would make me think he was aiming this complaint against homeowners who either (a) bought a bigger house than they could really afford or (b) increased their mortgage later on in order to get an extra bathroom (or extention etc) built on. He's clearly aiming this at the people who, by their own choice, over extended themselves beyond the basics.