Politicians often complain about America’s struggling middle class, but according to Squawk Box host Andrew Ross Sorkin, they should quit crying over spilt milk. Sorkin argued on Dec. 23 that the mid-20th century idea of middle class was a historical anomaly.
“This middle class that we keep talking about, this Leave it to Beaver middle class that was this panacea that people talk about is actually, I would argue to you, an historical aberration,” Sorkin said. Sorkin made the argument after co-host Joe Kernen and Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson decried the current state of America’s middle class.
Joe Kernen
By Sam Dorman | December 23, 2015 | 6:16 PM EST
By Michael Greibrok | October 14, 2015 | 2:55 PM EDT
Recent rulemaking by the EPA, if found to be constitutional, will regulate levels of carbon dioxide produced by power plants in each state.
However, CNBC Squawk Box co-anchor Joe Kernen reminded viewers of carbon dioxide’s popularity in an Oct. 9, discussion with the CEO of SodaStream.
By Michael Greibrok | October 6, 2015 | 4:28 PM EDT
Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen lit into writers at The Huffington Post Tuesday morning for their poor understanding of basic economics..
While The Huffington Post celebrated a record low in global poverty, it also decried the Trans-Pacific Partnership, proving to CNBC’s Kernen that the site’s staff have no idea what they write about.
By Michael Greibrok | September 23, 2015 | 2:25 PM EDT
The left is up in arms over the pharmaceutical CEO who raised prices for a drug mostly used by AIDS patients by more than 5,000 percent, but experts CNBC interviewed said regulatory barriers helped make it possible.
Founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical, Martin Shkreli bought the generic drug Daraprim, which is used for parasitic infections in pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals. He hiked its cost from $13.50 a pill to $750, a whopping 5,455 percent.
By Michael Greibrok | September 10, 2015 | 12:28 PM EDT
You know there’s a problem when a former CEO of a major American company says American CEOs are probably closer to the Chinese premier than they are to President Obama.
This morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box, the hosts and guest were discussing the upcoming visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to meet with President Obama and a number of American CEOs. They were explaining how there may be mixed messages and difficulties with the premier meeting with the president, and then business executives.
By Joseph Rossell | July 7, 2015 | 12:02 PM EDT
Coffee prices are falling, but liberal Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has decided to raise its prices anyway. CNBC’s Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen called Schultz out on July 7, saying Schultz was trying “to pad his profits.”
Kernen argued it was unfair to criticize airlines for failing to pass savings along to consumers when oil prices fell, but not criticize Starbucks for raising its prices even as the cost of coffee dropped.
By Joseph Rossell | June 30, 2015 | 2:05 PM EDT
Yes, there are still communists in Greece, and many support the possible Greek exit (or “Grexit”) from the eurozone.
CNBC’s chief international correspondent Michelle Caruso-Cabrera said on June 30 she “found it hard to believe” there were still communists in Greece, then played an interview with one of “many” communist protesters at an anti-euro rally. She challenged the protester to explain why he thought communism would “work now,” given its failure in countries like the USSR and Cuba. He responded by blaming the communist “bureaucratic elite” for taking power “back from the people.”
By Curtis Houck | May 29, 2015 | 4:42 PM EDT
CNBC Washington correspondent Richard Harwood and the co-hosts of CNBC’s Squawk Box briefly discussed during Friday’s show the age difference between Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio that included Harwood knocking Rubio for “look[ing] like a schoolboy” compared to Clinton.
By Joseph Rossell | May 21, 2015 | 11:29 AM EDT
The middle class is “getting nowhere” thanks to President Barack Obama, according to Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J.
Christie criticized Obama’s economic policies on CNBC’s Squawk Box May 21, and emphasized the need for restoring economic growth, reforming entitlements and investing in national defense.
By Joseph Rossell | May 19, 2015 | 3:53 PM EDT
A prominent American businessman said the media have unfairly “pounced” on recent data to slam Gov. Scott Walker’s employment policies in Wisconsin.
CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder, whose company owns Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr. and other restaurants, defended Walker’s jobs record on CNBC’s Squawk Box May 19. According to Puzder, Walker’s critics in the media took data “completely out of context” from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
By Kyle Drennen | October 23, 2014 | 3:31 PM EDT
On Thursday's Squawk Box on CNBC, host Joe Kernen cited the Media Research Center's latest study showing the Big Three network evening newscasts have barely noticed the anti-Obama midterm election of 2014 but provided wall-to-wall coverage in 2006: "...they breathlessly reported the Democratic takeover of Capitol Hill in the anti-Bush election of 2006....the coverage of this current situation, 6 to 1 disparity. There were 159 stories about the Democrats taking over in 2006. There have been 25 on the Big Three this [year]."
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 15, 2014 | 12:40 PM EDT
Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-S.D.) appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday morning to discuss a variety of topics including the impending vote on Scottish independence.
At the end of the segment, co-host Joe Kernen joked that when he goes to Scotland to play golf he will wear a kilt to “mark my ball” to which Heitkamp crudely asked “which one?”