On Tuesday night, liberal comedian Jon Stewart announced that he would be departing The Daily Show later this year to pursue other professional endeavors. Following Stewart’s decision to end his 16 year run at Comedy Central, many in the media have wondered what his next move would be, including former Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn who argued that he would pay Stewart $100 million per year for a new television distribution model. Speaking on CNBC’s Fast Money Halftime Report on Thursday, Levinsohn called Stewart “the franchise... Jon Stewart is authentic to the core and I think the millennial generation certainly knows that.”
Fast Money
By Kyle Drennen | February 29, 2012 | 2:15 PM EST
On CNBC's Behind the Money blog on Wednesday, Fast Money executive producer John Melloy promoted a left-leaning theory as to why the stock market has been on the rise lately: "While President Obama may not be Wall Street's ideal candidate, stock prices are rising on growing expectations he will be re-elected this November."
Melloy pointed to long-term political certainty as a reason for investor optimism and added: "The surge in President Obama's chances at a second term also have coincided with a string of better-than-expected domestic economic data this year, including an all-important drop in the unemployment rate."
By Jeff Poor | September 2, 2010 | 6:29 PM EDT
With a 9.6 percent unemployment rate overall in the United States and unemployment rates showing an uptick in states on the Gulf of Mexico that allow offshore oil drilling, one has to wonder what the Obama administration is thinking its Draconian wide-sweeping moratorium halting deepwater drilling in the Gulf after the BP oil spill.
While environmentalists are using today's explosion on a oil production platform in the Gulf to support a drilling moratorium, critics like CNBC's "Fast Money" panelist Jon Najarian have questioned the wisdom of the Obama administration's decision to put up to 75,000 in limbo.
"As far as what was going on in the Gulf, it shows a tone-deafness from this administration," Najarian said on the Sept. 2 broadcast of "Fast Money." "I mean, I'll pound the table for that because I'm not running for office. But I mean, this guy is tone deaf that 75,000 jobs in the Gulf of Mexico that have been idled for no good reason. It's costing all of us and it costs all the places where they would normally spend money as well."
By Jeff Poor | March 12, 2010 | 10:39 AM EST
Back on Christmas Eve of 2009, Obama's Treasury Dept. said it would lift the limits on what the federal government could provide in "emergency aid" to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - without seeking Congressional permission.
Very few reporters noticed, except for The Washington Post's Zachary Goldfarb who reported the story on Christmas Day and CNBC CME Group reporter and tea party inspiration Rick Santelli, who later pleaded for the public to take notice. With that occurrence in mind, Santelli scoffed at Sen. Chris Dodd's, D-Conn., legislative proposal of financial system reform that did not include reforms on both Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE).
"You know, I can't believe, first of all - you said, may not be included. They are not going to be included," Santelli said on "Fast Money" March 12. "And I think to put a moniker of reform on something that doesn't include Freddie and Fannie is very disingenuous. And I think that to pass something - what I heard Mr. Dodd say, Sen. Dodd, was, you know, it's the 101st senator. In other words, you know, we'll pass anything we have to show that we're doing something, no matter if it's the right thing or not, you know, I'm not buying that again."
By Anthony Kang | March 2, 2010 | 6:14 PM EST
President Obama continuously tries to portray himself as a friend to the little-man, middle class and small business. Hence his attacks on "fat cats" who "just don't get it," while labeling the extravagant bonuses as "obscene," and "the height of irresponsibility."
Meanwhile, members of his administration, in defending a sweeping small-business aid program Obama announced in his State of the Union, give reason to wonder if they really understand how to help small business.
Among the administration's proposals for small businesses are a $5,000 tax credit to hire new workers, elimination of capital gains taxes, and new incentives to invest in plants and equipment. At the same time, however, the administration plans to raise taxes on "the wealthiest Americans."
By Jeff Poor | February 3, 2010 | 11:40 AM EST
As the old cliché goes, you don't use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but according to Rick Santelli, that's exactly what it appears the Obama administration is doing terms of financial regulation and fiscal discipline.
On CNBC's Feb. 2 broadcast of "Fast Money," host Melissa Lee proposed that taxing the wealthy is not the path to "economic prosperity and fiscal stability." Santelli, the network's CME Group floor reporter, agreed.
"Well, you're right," Santelli said. "But I also think you're going to see when the Bush tax cuts expire, a lot of middle class write-offs and exemptions and various tax benefits will also fall by the wayside. Not the least of which to mention, I have so many friends that work for the financial industry. And they've learned from the government, even if you only make $25,000 to $125,000 a year, one firm says if you leave to go into another job or whatever, anything outside retirement, they're going to keep 10-to-20 percent of the stock they took from you following the government's directives."
Vintage Santelli: PelosiCare Threat to Recovery; Dow Climb Due to Market Bet on Fed Response to Unemployment
By Jeff Poor | November 6, 2009 | 10:26 PM EST A rising Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) means better times are on the way, right? Not necessarily, according to CNBC CME floor reporter and tea party movement inspiration Rick Santelli.
Santelli made an appearance on CNBC's Nov. 6 "Fast Money," a show which the host, Melissa Lee, is skittish about a discussion that politics interferes with the market is a reality. Nonetheless, Santelli explained there so happens to be correlation between a rise in unemployment rates and the rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
"[I] think we're building a stairway to heaven in Dow prices on the back of paper and I think that, you know it seems kind of dire to me that 8 percent - 8,000, 9 percent - 9,000, 10.2 - 10,000," Santelli said. "I shudder to think where the unemployment rate is going to be at 11 and 12,000 in the Dow."
By Jeff Poor | September 18, 2009 | 11:03 AM EDT
Back during 2008, Congressional leaders were eager to call oil executives to testify before them because of the high price of gasoline, which was tied to the higher prices of oil.
On Sept. 17, President Barack Obama surprised a lot of people and announced he was pulling the mat out from under two Eastern European allies - Poland and the Czech Republic - when he decided not to go forward with a missile defense shield proposed during the previous Bush administration.
"President Obama reeling back the Bush administration's plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, instead opting for a new system he says is better equipped to fend off an Iranian threat," "Fast Money" host Melissa Lee said on her Sept. 17 show.
By Brent Bozell | July 18, 2009 | 7:32 AM EDT
On society’s list of most shameful professions, the pornographer would be near the top. What must pornographers think of themselves? They would argue that their industry has joined the mainstream, yet for porn performers, it’s a sordid career fraught with perils of drugs, disease, and in the darker corners of porn, exploitation and abuse.
By Jeff Poor | July 8, 2009 | 3:46 PM EDT
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" That's a saying once bungled by President George W. Bush, to the loud delight of the liberal media. But that same media should keep it in mind as Washington mulls a second round of stimulus spending.
A July 7 Bloomberg story by Shamim Adam reported that Laura Tyson, an economic advisor to the Obama administration, had put forward the notion that the $787 billion approved in February was "a bit too small," and that government should consider a second stimulus package "focusing on infrastructure projects."
Although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., maintains there is "no showing that a second stimulus is needed," other members, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in a July 7 Politico article, say it shouldn't be taken off the table.
By Jeff Poor | May 22, 2009 | 3:32 PM EDT
Is there another shakeup imminent at CNBC? Since the economy has been on the rocks, NBC Universal's financial network has been in the spotlight - political tug-of-war and all. This time, another one of the network's star on-air personalities, Jeff Macke, could be out.
Macke had been a cynical, sometimes conservative voice on CNBC's "Fast Money" and in other CNBC and MSNBC appearances, often pointing out flaws in the Democrat-controlled political culture in Washington, D.C. Now, he could be following the same path his former colleague Dylan Ratigan, who left CNBC's "Fast Money" in March.
Jon Najarian, a CNBC contributor and co-founder of OptionMONSTER.com predicted as much in a May 21 post on his Twitter site.
By Jeff Poor | May 12, 2009 | 2:27 PM EDT
He's beloved by the gossip culture of Manhattan and was recently embraced by the left for hurling insults at CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer. But as Cramer's CNBC "Fast Money" colleagues explained, if you listened to NYU professor Nouriel Roubini, you would have missed out on a lot of stock market upside.
Roubini, often called Dr. Doom and known for crazy parties, predicted back in 2005 the speculative housing bubble would be the eventual undoing of the economy - and he was correct. However, as Jeff Macke, founder and president of Macke Asset Management and panelist on "Fast Money" explained May 11, being two years early with that prediction wasn't something to hang your hat on.
"Let me give you a little hint on trading," Macke said. "If you're two years early on any idea, what you are mostly is dead. You're a professor, as opposed to a trader. And if we still have time to talk after the five-minute butt kissing we gave the guy, I'll tell you what - he hasn't made anyone a cent. Until he does, as far as I'm concerned, it's a nice opinion but it's not making me money."