Santelli’s been at the GOP camp

In his absence, Rick Santelli has been boning up on the GOP talking points about “sanctity of contracts” with the AIG bonuses. It’s a ridiculous argument because, although contracts are important, those contracts were essentially reopened when the bhfkaAIG (black hole formerly known as AIG) failed and was seized by the government, whatever “equity” position they papered over the transaction with. The government seized AIG after it became clear it would fail in a disorderly fashion if the government didn’t step in.

Socialism

One of the most egregious linguistic-political tool of right-wing commentators on CNBC is the use of the terms ‘nationalization’ and ‘socialism’. They use this to conjure an idea that the government wants to take over banks and insurance companies like the black hole formerly known as AIG and Citigroup. The term ‘nationalization’ also belies the true objective of government action: to dispose of failed institutions that are much larger than the FDIC has the bandwidth to handle.

The idea that the government wants to own failed and insolvent banking institutions to direct the economy along ‘socialist’ lines is false and the further use of the terms only serves the political objectives of the people who are using them. Again, a distraction from the business of CNBC which is to report on what is actually happening in the financial markets and (unfortunately) to sell retail investors stock and funds they might or might not want to own.