Media Appearance: CNN Money (04/29/08)

Glenn_beck

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I am on CNN Money – Glenn Beck’s show tonite, discussing Inflation Ex-Inflation, and the dubious way the government creates CPI.

I should be on the half hour at 7:30, 9:30, and 12:30.

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UPDATE: April 29, 2008 8:30pm

That was pretty cool — I got to discuss how misleading the CPI data is, show charts of the various CPI-lowering adjustments, and speak uninterrupted.

Beck definitely gets that the whole system is full of crap thing.

You folks in comments should watch to see if you think the appearance was worth it.  (I’ll post it as soon as CNN makes the video available)

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What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. donna commented on Apr 29

    Oh, Barry.

    I just lost about a zillion degrees of respect for you.

    I’m so sorry.

  2. Mike G commented on Apr 29

    You’ll have to work overtime to rephrase your remarks into short words, kindergarten-level concepts and bigoted mud-slinging to dumb it down to his level.

  3. Ryan P. commented on Apr 29

    Ooooh!
    Out of all the shows out there, Beck? Couldn’t you get on a little bit more finance oriented?

  4. Scott commented on Apr 29

    I am one of BR’s partners and an investor in Fusion — if he failed to do any show because he disagreed with the host’s politics, I would be extremely disappointed. And his other investors would probably sue him . . .

  5. Eric commented on Apr 29

    I understand going on just about any show. A gig is a gig. But could you do me a favor and spit in Mr. Beck’s face? Thanks.

  6. Mr. Flibble commented on Apr 29

    Barry,
    Did you offend anybody at CNN lately? It looks like you’ve been demoted to the ‘B’ list of teevee talk shows.

    Or…maybe…you’ll be its savior. Viewership of Beck’s show may well triple even if only 12 readers of this blog tune in.

  7. larrybob commented on Apr 29

    so what is the appropriate disinfectant to use after appearing on Beck?

  8. Byno commented on Apr 29

    Glenn Beck?????????????

    Weak Barry. I seriously doubt the rubes who watch Beck’s show traffic much on your site. A gig is NOT a gig; Beck represents everything you rail against daily. As a parallel, this would be like PZ Myers knowingly going on Ben Stein’s show (assuming Ben had one).

    Smells like…hypocrisy. Super weak.

  9. AndrewBW commented on Apr 29

    What all those other guys said.

  10. foo commented on Apr 29

    My sympathies. Hope you have rehearsed a reply to:

    So what you are saying is that the inflation caused by immigrants taking our stuff is actually higher than we thought?

  11. NC Jim commented on Apr 29

    I agree that most of the time Beck is a silly right wing hack, but…

    His interviews with Peter Schiff were very good. Beck seemed interested and ready to learn – not the slightest bit pompous.

    I will watch tonight and see which Beck shows up.

    Jim

  12. VJ commented on Apr 29

    Beck’s normal viewers… eh, check that, his regular viewers, will not have the foggiest idea what you are talking about.
    .

  13. Becky commented on Apr 29

    I’m glad Glenn Beck is doing a segment on this. I’ve heard him talk about this before, and he seems well informed.

  14. afferent input commented on Apr 29

    Be sure to ask Beck how his recent interview of Ben Stein went. Stein had lots to say about his stupid new movie “Expelled”, a creationist propaganda film.

    Talk about slumming, Barry.

  15. rickrude commented on Apr 29

    Oh, Barry.

    I just lost about a zillion degrees of respect for you.

    I’m so sorry.

    Posted by: donna | Apr 29, 2008 5:51:41 PM
    //////////////////////////////////////////
    Barry, don’t be a wimp with that loud mouthed
    simpleton.

  16. Greg0658 commented on Apr 29

    he (& many others – Kudlow now) was spewing ethanol disinfo .. quick partial transcript of letter in our paper by our county Farm Bureau President

    According to many economimists the recent increase in food costs is more directly related to skyrocketing transportation and petroleum costs rather than the increase in farm products. Corn as a food ingredient, contributes very little to cost of food. For example the amount of corn in a box of corn flakes is around 9 cents: the amount of corn in a pound of pork is 21 cents: and a gallon of milk has 16 cents worth of corn value.

  17. larster commented on Apr 29

    Is CNN so out of ideas that they gabe Beck a business show?

  18. bluestatedon commented on Apr 29

    “So what you are saying is that the inflation caused by immigrants taking our stuff is actually higher than we thought?”

    His follow-up question will be “Will President Barack Osama smile when his Islamofascist supporters nuke Wall Street?”

    Barry, I recommend not shaking Beck’s hand. Dumb is transmitted by hand-to-hand contact.

  19. Greg0658 commented on Apr 29

    ps – Intel Design and Ben Stein interview was a good one – I’m in that camp, check out the concept ie: intricacy of life (cells and dna) NOT how to pay your bills in a depression

    Beck – he’s hard to miss surfin in all them time slots

  20. Rich_Lather commented on Apr 29

    I love that pose. It’s so Colbert. Oh wait….

  21. Sherman McCoy commented on Apr 29

    Oh Why O Why Barry! What happened to your standards??!! Glenn Beck personifies everything that is the OPPOSITE of sensible, contrary-when-necessary, Big-Picture thinking! He’s nothing but a peddler of conventional narratives, and the strongest (and pretty much only) argument he makes is how much he can huff and puff…

  22. Steve commented on Apr 29

    Barry, I like watching you and I like watching Glenn Beck because you both cut across the grain of conventional group think and aren’t afraid to voice your view… even when it’s in the minority.

    Based on the comments posted here it appears that you have a lot of left leaning secularists in your readership… not that there’s anything wrong with that…

    I sometimes lean left myself, but am surprised at the vitriol expressed in these comments! I expected more open minds here.

  23. Eric commented on Apr 29

    Open minds? Some people deserve unmitigated contempt. Beck is one of them. It doesn’t mean that he never says anything right. Nobody is wrong 100% of the time. But he is just about as scummy as you get on a major cable channel. But then, considering that we live in a country where a Vietnam vet who put himself in hazardous territory for weeks and months on end was successfully branded a slacker in a Presidential race against a guy who hung out with the bottle at a National Guard base stateside, well, I’m not surprised at anything I see in the American media anymore. Rejecting Beck doesn’t indicate a closed mind; it reflects basic human decency.

  24. Winston Munn commented on Apr 29

    I just read the transcript of President Bush’s a.m. press conference, and I have to admit the man is consistent. In case you missed it, here were the talking points:

    1. High oil prices – Blame Congress.
    2. High food prices – Blame Congress.
    3. American’s pessimism – Blame Congress.
    4. Foreclosures – Blame Congress

    Seems to me that if we simply did away with Congress, all the problems would cease to exist.

    But wait, I thought we already did that….

  25. Donny commented on Apr 29

    Oh please .. look at all the crybabies in here complaining because Barry is going on a right-wing slanted show. Big effing deal … what a bunch of sniveling liberals.

    Barry … I sure the fu*k don’t agree with everything Beck says, in fact I haven’t watched his show in months. But I do remember he was one of the first broadcast outside of the business media that pointed out the imbalances in the economy. Unlike Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper, Beck was pointing out this Ponzi Scheme before everything went to hell. He had Schiff on his program last year when the Dow was at all-time highs and everything seemed so rosy.

    Yet the sniveling lefties cry foul. WTF?

    Barry … I’ll watch tonight.

  26. wunsacon commented on Apr 29

    >> I expected more open minds here

    Steve, it’s not practical and probably not even appropriate to keep an “open mind” on every pundit previously watched or issue already considered. Maybe some readers here have watched Beck, if even for a few minutes. In which case, they didn’t prejudge. They *judged*.

    When should we each revisit an issue or reconsider the opinions of someone we don’t respect? When there’s “new data” or we change any of the internal “models” we use to infer truth. If we revisit prior decisions more/too often, we’d never get past breakfast.

    Hard to know the point, of course…

  27. sport commented on Apr 29

    As long as Beck does not shout out over Barry (like some other hosts) and *the message* gets out, where is the problem? BR is more than capable. Now if *the message* changes to meet the viewers of Beck, that is a problem.

  28. Drewbert commented on Apr 29

    Glenn Beck?

    A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

    That’s one step away from appearing on Nancy Grace!

    Puh-lease!

  29. Arthur commented on Apr 29

    If I was running a firm and had the opportunity to go on CNN, I would do so regardless of the host.

    Its simply smart business . . .

  30. Pat G. commented on Apr 29

    I’d say Beck set you up nicely and you hit the ball out of the park!! Nice job.

  31. Joe commented on Apr 29

    >> I’d say Beck set you up nicely and you hit
    >> the ball out of the park!! Nice job.

    I second that. Well done, Barry.

  32. dark1p commented on Apr 29

    Well, you’re not appearing as a political guest, but as an expert in economics and finance. The real thing is, Beck’s TV ratings are so bad you have to wonder who he has scandalous pictures of in order to stay on the air.

    So, what the heck. He let you talk and paid you. No problem there.

    What a batsh*t dude, though.

  33. Barry Ritholtz commented on Apr 29

    I don’t get paid for any appearance . . .

  34. AGG commented on Apr 29

    Barry,
    Thank you for getting on that Beck show. His audience has serious money trouble and it’s good to have someone telling them the truth.

  35. Wayne T Forbes commented on Apr 29

    It just goes to show you how out of touch with reality the Wall Street crowd is. You whiney pussies have no idea how many people out there agree with Glenn Beck do you?

    He’s a lot more mainstream than a lot of the (now blatantly obvious) left leaning whack jobs that apparently read here.

  36. Bob A commented on Apr 29

    Glenn Beck is the among the most despicable morons on television. Hi Glenn. Yes you.

  37. rickrude commented on Apr 29

    Glen Beck, say what you want about him,
    but he is still better than Kudlow….

    Kudlow thinks he knows everything.

    Glen Beck represents the IQ of the avg american , but he does sometimes listen to
    guests like Barry, and actually accepts
    the reasons…. unlike Kudlow.

  38. stuart commented on Apr 29

    Say what you will about Beck, I’ll take him over Kudlow and crap any day,….. any day. Beck gets alot of air play. Good job BR. You need to appear as a twosome with David Walker. Him discussing the horrible nature of Fed fiscal position, and you analyzing the implications and symptoms as we see them in current economic stats. Would be one to tape.

  39. Joe commented on Apr 29

    Geese, Beck gets way under my skin, but I don’t loathe him as much as so many do here. I would also expect that his audience is perhaps a bit wealthier than at least one commenter mentioned here.

    Since I know nobody here actually knows Glen Beck’s views on the economy based on the comments here, let me enlighten you. Glen Beck makes our Barry Ritholtz look like Larry Kudlow – he is very much an economic pessimist. He practically says buy a gun and learn to grow your own food!

  40. wunsacon commented on Apr 30

    Agree with “sport”… It’s important to get the message out to everyone.

  41. wunsacon commented on Apr 30

    >> t just goes to show you how out of touch with reality the Wall Street crowd is. You whiney pussies have no idea how many people out there agree with Glenn Beck do you?

    “Out of touch” with *reality*? Or “out of touch” with you and your friends responsible for the past 8 years and the deepening bust in the years to follow? (Do you recognize the difference?)

    >> He’s a lot more mainstream than a lot of the (now blatantly obvious) left leaning whack jobs that apparently read here.

    Beck is not “mainstream”. Neither are you. And neither am I.

    But, seemingly unlike you, “mainstream” is not one of my aspirations or illusions.

    Now, if you wish, go ahead and continue your little tantrum about “whiney pussies” not respecting one of your heroes. Boohoo. Here’s a hanky.

  42. Mr. Bubbles commented on Apr 30

    I’m not a Beck apologist, but come on people. Many of you apparently haven’t been paying attention to the economic experts he’s had on. He recently interviewed the former Comptroller, David Walker, as well as Nouriel Roubini.

    Love him or hate him, he’s at least getting the message out to more of the (admittedly braindead) public.

  43. TV Guy commented on Apr 30

    I caught the show — nicely done.

    If CNBC gave you that much screen time IWasn’t that a chart from your blog?) they would be so much better

  44. Mr. Flibble commented on Apr 30

    Barry,
    I’m glad he let you talk.

    I disagree with those who say “go on whatever show.” The host controls the message and, more perniciously, can use your good credit to boost his own laurels as a Serious Pundit–even if you never got to complete a single sentence. Some shows are not worth the time, and Beck’s is one of them.

    I won’t engage in ad hominems with the (small) handful of Beck fans posting here, but I suppose that if even one person got educated then maybe it wasn’t a total waste of time. But you would have had a better and bigger audience giving your talk in a random NYC subway station.

  45. Greg0658 commented on Apr 30

    “You need to appear as a twosome with David Walker” … that would be a good halfhour segment

    Beck is a tv/radio host searching for ratings in a world the more outragous the content the higher the ratings.

    You get the TV you ask (pay for folks). You get the environment you pay for.
    ie: Air Water Landfill; Population intelligence; Business ethics; Government ethics

  46. weinerdog43 commented on Apr 30

    I also think Glen Beck is an idiot, but even if 1 person learned something from Barry, then that’s a good thing. Thank you for this blog Barry.

  47. Strasser commented on Apr 30

    Barry,

    Great job as usual.

    Beck is one we watch on occasion. He is not a whacko left winger and is probably the only one with common sense on the Communist News Network who does bring issues to the fore… we’ve heard great interviews on important issues, ie global warming, socialized… that no other network will discuss. Those who criticize Beck, probably have not watched his show…

  48. IBH commented on Apr 30

    Ths station is not CNN MONEY. It is CNN HEADLINE NEWs. CNN MONEY closed shop over 2 years ago, a foolish mistake.

  49. Wayne T Forbes commented on Apr 30

    One thing you forgot to mention wunsacon is that while you may be higher up the Ponzi pyramid than all those “normal” Americans you so loathe ( and undoubtedly make your Wall Street income by skimming their income in one way or another ), you are also underneath those higher up the pyramid ( who undoubtedly skim all of us with govt enforced monopolies, taxes and red tape ) and loathe all of us equally.

    Welcome to reality. When heads start to roll I’d rather be with the unwashed masses than the erudite homo’s in the Ivory towers.

  50. alexd commented on Apr 30

    There is no question that Beck can be an annoying right winger, but a blanket condemnation of anything that he does is as much a faciast condemnation as anything the right wing does in it’s condemnation of the left. I appreciate it when the media has someone talking who has on a different opinion than the status quo, which they supported (supported). This is called dialogue and it leads to thinking and action based on an amalgam of ideas, which are hopefully based on what works. I have met quite a few republicans who used to but now cannot support what the current administration and the previous incarnation of congress has done based on results. They were told that they would get smaller government, lower taxes, and would not get nation building. Instead they got LARGER government; borrowing to achieve lower taxation, waste on a grand scale (though that has been done before) and the invasion of a nation on false pretense and conjecture. We have also seen several misguided ideas such as if a company reports doing well that is good for everybody in America, when actually it all too often mainly benefits executives in a company. Well they have seen these things and they do not like the results. They are still Republicans and they have genuine republican values not the neocon version which seems to be “I got mine and f**ck you, get your own. Henry Ford who was as conservative as could be wanted a strong middle class. He figured out that a strong middle class would provide a market for his cars. Ford did really well with the idea that one had to make the product affordable and that you wanted a prosperous middle class to buy products now and in the future. In other words he was realistic and thought into the future. Do we see that kind of thinking now?

    Greg it is a really primitive approach to think that due to the fact that something is complicated and intricate that only God could have created it. Arthur C Clark said it well that a culture presented with technology beyond its present state of achievement and comprehension regards that technology as magic. Einstein and other geniuses understood math beyond my ability to understand, does that mean I should call it magic? You are looking at the trees not the forest. If you said that God allows this universe to contain such complexity at least then I could file it under beliefs where insufficient evidence to verify one way or the other. But a lot of this is just lack of imagination and the inability to look at complex systems and see their roots.

    Everyone should stop worrying that Glen Beck has COOTIES and that BR is going to get them, when in fact it is BR who has the contagious form of cootie!

    Donny is right about sniveling. (And I am a leftie!)

    The conversation here shows me that BR ‘s appearance on GB causes people to think and talk to each other.

    Better than the current government whose response to terrorism is to infantalize the American people with the “Get under the beds it coming to get each and everyone of you, but Big Daddy will save you!” Instead of telling us to firm up our resolve in the face of those who stand against us. Then they used that excuse to employ their friends in the war on terror and we threw dollars and iou’s out from under that bed and never made them account for the results.

    Keep it up Barry!

  51. Uncle Jeffy commented on Apr 30

    Relax, Barry – as long as you went on, stuck to the facts, and avoided biasing your interpretations of those facts, you did fine. Even people who dislike and disagree with Beck and his ilk should recognize the truth of Bertrand Russell’s statement:

    “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”

    5 minutes with Bush and his “It’s all Congress’ fault” attitude should convince anyone which variety is up there at the podium.

  52. Greg0658 commented on Apr 30

    people and books planted the current notion of God
    evolution happens
    the human body and mind is a Great chicken soup

  53. Shnaps commented on Apr 30

    I’ve never heard of Glenn Beck.

    But it doesn’t matter – I’d watch ‘Tyra’ if Barry was going to be on her show discussing CPI.

    Anyone know if they will repeat it today?

  54. Zack Hiwiller commented on Apr 30

    It’s a sad commentary that so many people will ignore someone based on what lever he pulls for President. As if that was the fundamental basis of all knowledge and if you get THAT wrong then you must get everything else wrong.

  55. Eric commented on Apr 30

    Of course Beck gets that the “whole system is full of crap thing”, but for a much different reason than Barry. The lunatic fringe on the right despises the Federal government and all of its bureaucracies, even when there is a Republican in the White House. Beck’s audience gets off on the idea that the liberal academics, Wall Street bankers and slimy lawyers in Washington D.C. are lying to us. Then after the show is over, they pop in their DVD of Braveheart.

  56. Drewbert commented on Apr 30

    >You whiney pussies have no idea how many people out there agree with Glenn Beck do you?

    Yes. Koolaid is quite a popular drink, I believe.

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