So for those of you who have never had the privilege of watching a rich man cry all you need to do is catch a glimpse of Rick Santelli's moving tirade on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Broadcast by CNBC yesterday, his words have been echoed by talk radio hosts and conservative columnists all over the country. The traders on the floor of the exchange were said by Mr. Santelli to represent the silent majority, a cross-section of Americans who he believes have been left voiceless in this stimulus debate. The only problem with Mr. Santelli's theory, is that a group of wealthy commodities traders aren't exactly what anyone would consider an equal and appropriate representation of America. Maybe if he had decided to have his sour grapes in front of an unemployment office he would have shown a little more consideration to the suffering of common people.
He called the everyday Americans who are falling into foreclosure, "losers" and gallantly pinned the blame exclusively on them. Painting the kind of broad strokes reserved for someone as out of touch as he is, Mr. Santelli has yet to present an actual, workable solution. The only thing he has announced is that he is organizing a pity party in Chicago and apparently everyone in the peanut gallery is invited.
Calling for a "Chicago Tea Party" Mr. Santelli is apparently intent on spending his time kicking and screaming, rather than working with those people are actually tasked with creating solutions. Really Santelli? What are you gonna throw in the water? Your mortgage backed securities or your shares of Lehman brothers stock? Maybe we should all take our resumes and throw those in the water.
What does this solve...nothing. It doesn't bring an idea to the table, yesterday's rant was just a mindless temper tantrum by a well fed stock jockey upset he can no longer make a killing on the sweat and toil of others. This country wasn't built by crybabies like Rick Santelli, it was made great by entrepreneurs and inventors, middle class families and small business owners. When he is gonna throw a lets be part of the solution party, I'll go to that.
