In a little under seven minutes, the world of CNBC provided something for everyone in this epic confuse-a-rama between Rick Santelli, Steve Liesman, and Brian Sullivan. The president's jab at 'trickle-down' economics (with an eye to Bernanke's recent asset-wealth-inflation efforts) was the premise but went to an 11 on the Spinal Tap amplifier of self-deception. The question is initially well-posed and subsequently addressed by Santelli who describes the broken pipeline from the Fed to the bank's reserves that is not allowing trickle-down of Bernanke's largesse. Liesman argues that the lowering of rates helps borrowers (all the middle-class apparently) as they pay lower costs on their debt (seemingly ignoring the fact that Santelli just said the 'flow ain't happening' - and the fact that retail-to-wholesale mortgage spreads are at record highs). This is then followed by Sullivan with his insightful quip that the inflationary by-product of Bernanke is higher costs of food/energy which buffers the benefits of lower interest costs... and that is where Liesman goes into full-propaganda mode...
Perhaps Mr. Liesman should read our post from last night... on bubble blowing mechanics [4]...