The last time Mizuho's Chief Economist Steve Ricchiuto was on CNBC, [3] we suspected he would never be invited back. However, today, he dared to unleash the truthiness of the US economy, debating 'truth' with none other than Deutsche Bank's meteoroconomist Joe Lavorgna [4]. As soon as Ricchiuto stated unequivocal 'facts' about growth, productivity, and earnings; the smiling Lavorgna started talking over him to which Ricchiuto blasted "why bother... why do I even bother?" and Lavorgna fell back to the "well he has been short the market for 400 points" argumnet which Ricchiuto rebuffed aggressively...
One of these guys is thoroughly pissed off... the rest are smiling.
[5]
The fireworks begin around 3:00 (but watch the intro for some facts)
As a reminder, this was Ricchiuto's last appearance...148 seconds of awkward uncomfortable truthiness...
While Steve had a number of hard to hear quotes for the CNBC anchors - such as:
"There is no acceleration in underlying economic activity," and
"There's this wrong concept that I keep on hearing about in the financial press about the acceleration in economic growth... It's not happening!"
A stunned Simon Hobbs rebuffs, "That's a long list of non-ideal situations we find ourselves in," to which Ricchiuto snaps back "and we can keep on going!"
"After a string of dismal data on durable goods, retail spending, and inventories, we get a good jobs number and everyone saying the economy's good - it's not good!"
* * *
And here is why Joe Lavorgna gets paid the big bucks...
[6]
