CNBC's Rick Santelli Calls Tim Geithner 'Liar'

RICK IS BACK!

Rush: Santelli's 'Somehow Broken Free' Of NBC's Crackdown







In a move Rush Limbaugh says is evidence he has "wandered off the reservation", CNBC's Rick Santelli today accused Treasury Secretary / Tax Cheat Timothy Geithner of "lying" about the destabilizing effects of Obama's economic policies.

It's a return to form for the man who is credited with kicking off a round of successful Tea Party protests earlier this year. Since then, network suits at his state-controlled network parent seem to have cracked down on CNBC's personalities, insisting they tow the line for Obama and his policies.

From the now-infamous February rant-heard-'round-the-world:





Today, the sequel came in the same trading-floor setting, where an impatient Santelli expressed his disgust with Geithner's "lying" over Obama's destabilizing policy of printing money to buy our own debt. This practice has China and other foreign debtors deeply worried about America's currency, potential hyperinflation and overall economic future.

Real Clear Politics captured the rant, see the clip here.


Meanwhile, sharp-eyed Rush Limbaugh producers caught the exchange even while El Rushbo was on the air, leading to this response:

RUSH: Here's Timmy Geithner this afternoon on CNBC's Power Lunch. They played on CNBC a sound bite from senior economics reporter Steve Liesman and his interview with Tim Geithner, and Liesman said, "Treasury is issuing over time and not so much time trillions of dollars of debt. The Fed's buying $300 billion of Treasuries. Why is this not the dreaded concept of monetizing the debt which so many economists would warn against?"

GEITHNER: There's no risk of that in the United States because, again, we have a strong independent central bank whose obligation under the law is not just to achieve maximum sustainable growth but to keep inflation low and stable over time. And I know the chairman is completely committed to that.

RUSH: Okay. So there's Geithner saying no, no, there's no risk of that in the United States, no risk of monetizing the debt. We have strong industry central bank. Obligations under the law. So Rick Santelli, he of tea party firm, responded to Geithner with this.
SANTELLI: Are we monetizing? And his answer was no, we have a strong independent central bank. Now, the latter may be true, but it certainly isn't an answer to the question. And I'd like feedback everybody, that quantitative easing can't exist without the montization process. We issue debt, we print the money to buy it. That is monetizing. I can't believe that was his answer. It's pretty disingenuous. If that's the Treasury Secretary in charge of all this activity and that was his answer, it makes me nervous. Blatantly saying they're not monetizing when the March statement for the first time ever expressed quantitative easing and put it on the map, I just think that that's the wrong answer. He's not telling the truth!

RUSH: Well, there it is on CNBC, Rick Santelli, who they reined in once before, has somehow broken free and wandered off the reservation and just accused Little Timmy of lying. And, of course, Santelli is right; we are monetizing the debt. What monetizing the debt is, we issue debt, we sell Treasuries. We do this or that. Then we print money to buy it ourselves.

They have these auctions, Treasury auctions, they're not raising as much money as they are projected to raise, we sell Treasuries and monetizing the debt as we issue the debt, meaning, okay, we've made a decision to spend $12 trillion we don't have. So that $12 trillion of debt, well, you have to monetize it, I mean the $12 trillion has to be something. So you print the money. Now, we're not going to print all $12 trillion; we're going to print it as we need it.

That's why there's still time to stop this with elections in 2010 and 2012. Right now the deficit probably this year, two trillion, but with all this other stuff coming up it will be more like four. So you print the money to monetize the debt. Therefore it's inflationary. The ChiComs are dead right about this and they're scared to death that we're monetizing our own debt. You should be, too. And Geithner over there telling the Chinese we're not doing that, that's just absolutely absurd. And they're laughing at him in these meetings.

Whether NBC suits will continue to tolerate Santelli's vocal dissent isn't known, but if they do ultimately remove him, Rick may be in hot demand from other outlets.



FOR New England regional talk radio updates, see our other site.



Amazon orders originating with clicks here benefit The Radio Equalizer's ongoing operations.

Your PayPal contributions keep this site humming along. Thanks!