Who’s Sending The Email?
This CNBC clip comes from the middle of the day when the market thought Washington had worked out a bailout deal for the auto makers. Beginning at 4:30 into the clip, you hear John Harwood interrupt and announce that he’s just received an email from the House side saying the Senate deal is a “non-starter.” Right after you hear one of the anchors say, “. . . . and the market goes down.”
Let’s step back from the debate and ask a simple question: who is sending this message to Harwood? A staffer? At whose direction?
And why is the House negotiating with the Senate through CNBC?
The spike in Treasuries this afternoon speaks to the level of fear out there. The fear is a direct product of this kind of bizarre and irresponsible behavior. Which is even more stunning because we seem to be going into a step-by-step repeat of the TARP fiasco where Congress destroyed is credibility without restoring confidence.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Absolutely true. Every last shred of confidence is being erased by this behavior.
How many people have been Gasparino’ed in this bear market?
November 20th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I suspect that the email came from a staffer who did not realize john was on the air. There are many hill staffers who are motivated to “leak” not for personal gain…like those who float Street rumors to run stocks…their interests are to see what they define as accurate information get distributed.
As for differences between the House and Senate. This is a problem. Years ago there was honor among staffs. Now there is distrust between certain staffs. Sometimes its a rivalry between House and Senate. Other times there are conflicts between majority/dem and minority/rep staffs working on the same committees.
By the way, today we saw a perfect example of this. On the Senate side Ted Stevens was hailed by his colleagues. Stevens is one of the senior most Senators…along with Kennedy and Byrd, to name a few. On the other side of the Hill, John Dingell, who will become the longest serving Member of the House of Representatives in February, was stripped of his Chairmenship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee by Henry Waxman.
The implications for investors are important. Big John, as he’s known, built that Committee. It controls the legislation it does because of Dingell’s skill over the years. For Waxman to take control away from the senior most Member in the House says something…It says Pelosi wanted Waxman. Dingell and Pelosi have been at odds for some time now. Dingell represents Michigan and protects the autos. Waxman comes from California and is known for his attack hearings. If you’re a domestic auto company who would you rather deal with? This is a bigger story for the autos than an errant email.
Yesterday, beltway types knew what Reid and Pelosi said at the press conference…they did not have the votes to pass an auto bailout. With Dingell running his Committee, he would have traded votes for this bailout. Losing his Chairmanship makes that more difficult.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Good riddance to Dingell. He’s part of the problem.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:54 am
CNBC has pumped the market up and down so many times. They have for so many years now, walked the fine line of insider trading. Now they are breaking stories on the air via instant e-mails? Who really is that source? After all, in these moments we are talking about real money.
I’m surprised in this octagon of talking heads how some are “shocked” that the TARP money is being used for other things. Do these people have no regard for the rule of law? No wonder why the markets keep tanking. What is good for Wall Street is good for the average citizen eh?