Here in the HousingWire newsroom, we always have CNBC on one of our TV’s. It’s the background noise that has become the soundtrack of our days.
Most days, it is just background noise for us, but there are those rare occasions when something happens that perks up our collective ears and commands that we turn up the volume and pay attention.
Monday was one of those days.
During the “Fast Money Halftime Report,” the show’s panelists, which included CNBC’s Rick Santelli and Steve Liesman, were debating the Federal Reserve Bank’s policies and its role in the U.S. economy.
During the discussion, Santelli and Liesman became embroiled in a debate that left the traders behind Santelli applauding and catcalling and ultimately led Santelli to walk off the set.
The specific issue that launched Santelli’s one-sided shouting match was whether or not Fed policy is “behind the curve.” Santelli called on the Fed to act more like bankers and let the market dictate where interest rates should be.
The debate ultimately devolved into the aforementioned shouting match with the normally bespectacled Santelli removing his glasses and screaming into the camera.
Liesman, for his part, maintained his cool and landed the ultimate haymaker on Santelli.
“It’s impossible for you to have been more wrong, Rick,” Liesman said. “Your call for inflation, the destruction of the dollar, the failure of the U.S. economy to rebound…"
Liesman continues:
“Rick, it’s impossible for you to have been more wrong. Every single bit of advice you gave would have lost people money, Rick… There is no piece of advice that you’ve given that’s worked, Rick. Not a single one… The higher interest rates never came. The inability of the U.S. to sell bonds never happened. The dollar never crashed, Rick. There isn’t a single one that’s worked for you.”
Check out the video below to see the whole debate and watch Santelli nearly lose his mind (around the six-minute mark).
