CNBC - Buy The Book

Just in time for holiday gift giving, a new and improved history.

As someone who tracks the financial markets I have been a fairly faithful watcher of CNBC. While I wouldn’t trust the parent company NBC for the correct time, I have found that CNBC has a pretty good group of correspondents that keep abreast of breaking news. They also have some pretty talented traders and hedge fund managers that can spot trends and make recommendations.

To be sure, most of these learned market gurus missed the credit collapse and the devastating impact it had on all things financial. But when looking at the recent past, everyone, including the Icon from Omaha, Warren Buffet missed the signs of impending doom. CNBC’s madman commentator Jim Cramer unjustly took it in the chin from Barack Obama to the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and all points in between.

The sad fact is that almost everybody missed the warning signs because the collapse of the worldwide financial markets was as a result of a new set of rules. Congress changed the credit markets when it mandated home mortgages be given to folks who could not pay them back. Wall Street jumped on board with both feet looking to do what Wall Street does, make a buck. But reality has a way of trumping even the best of intentions and trillions of dollars of wealth were lost in a rapid decline of the market and an equally rapid disintegration of available credit.

CNBC’s David Faber was one of the first to publish a book about the collapse in his detailed account of Wall Street’s failings titled “And Then the Roof Caved In”. Faber’s book gives a detailed explanation of the various financial and investment tools developed and used to make money during the galactic expansion of the residential mortgage market. He explains the packaging and repackaging of mortgage backed securities and the devastating impact felt by investors worldwide when their AAA rated securities turned into junk bonds. He was however, extremely careful to absolve the US Congress and then President Bill Clinton of any blame for the genesis of this financial hysteria. I can begrudgingly overlook the blatant partisanship of Faber’s book out of appreciation for the worthy information contained about the financial packages. But history was at least tampered with in his non-factual assessment of responsibility.

But now CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino comes out with his new book “The Sellout”. It’s not new for Gasparino to come out with additional income earning books, this one being his third. But much like Faber, Gasparino’s political leanings are in full view in his less than impartial reasoning. It is also not that I mind CG writing any kind of book he wants and making a few extra bucks, but his liberal leaning is becoming more apparent during his on air discussions in what I can only surmise is an attempt to increase book sales.

During an on air interview Gasparino lit into the upcoming quarterly report of Goldman Sachs. Goldman is expected to announce a hugely profitable quarter and therefore some very hefty bonuses for those responsible for making it happen. Gasparino repeatedly damned the success and planned bonuses at Goldman fallaciously claiming they had just been bailed out by the taxpayers. “I don’t care what anybody says. They got bailed out” he said.

The facts are that Goldman neither wanted nor needed the $10 billion given to them in TARP funds. They resisted at every level until Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made it clear that everyone had to participate so as not to draw undue attention to those that actually needed the money. He also made it clear that this was NOT a voluntary program. Goldman took the money, held it and returned it as soon as the government would allow them to do so. Those are the facts.

Gasparino began to get into areas like the benefit Goldman experienced from the AIG bailout, which while true, was not done for the purpose of benefitting Goldman but rather to save the few trillion in pension funds AIG managed.

Goldman suggested they may give a portion of their earnings to a charitable organization, but even that was not enough to placate Gasparino. It was remarkably apparent that Charlie was looking to make a point and equally apparent he was looking to sell a few books and rewrite history.

This is an extremely dangerous precedent being set and plays directly into the hands of those that are looking to rewrite history and have us believe that everything Wall Street is evil and we are the poor victims of unbridled greed. I watch CNBC for news and informed commentary, not a political talking point and an infomercial about a new book.

At least I did.

Fox News Business Channel is getting a lot more of my attention.

PS – As I write this Goldman Sachs stock is hitting a new 52 week high. Nice try Charlie.