On June 30th, Dennis Kneale of CNBC formally announced the end of the recession. He referenced a few charts that supported his opinion and also something called a “gut feel(ing)” as proof the recession has ended. That’s all fine and dandy, I might go after someone like this for citing circumstantial evidence and making a dramatic call from it, but I might not. But then he started calling out bloggers, specifically anonymous bloggers, going so far as to call some of them “dickweeds”. Don’t let the suit fool you, this guy is no professional. The video is at the bottom of this post.

It got me thinking about how much I hate people that are paid of their opinions like Kneale. I don’t have a specific beef with all of them, it’s a desirable job, but I do have problems when these personalities are surprised that some people don’t like them. So here’s a quick note for Dennis Kneale:

Here’s the difference between you and people like me. You’re paid to give your opinion, I’m not. Like anyone compensated for their services your internal motivation must be questioned. For most of us that doesn’t matter because our only motivation is to get paid in our day jobs. However those of you paid for your opinion like yourself, Paul Krugman, and Bill O’Rielly, YOUR motivation is money and your opinion should be questioned. What is it that motivates bloggers to offer their opinion? We do it because we care. We want to share information and opinion to gain a greater understanding of the world. We aren’t paid for our opinions. We bust our asses 40+ hours a week doing unrelated jobs and can maybe devote a few hours to sharing our opinions of the world around us. A true dickweed is someone who gets paid for their opinions and attacks someone who doesn’t.

What did you do on June 30th? You met with your production staff and planned a show. You met with data experts who got all the supporting data you’d need for you. You met with writers who planned exactly what you would say and when you would say it. Then you met with graphic artists who created the pretty charts to distract your viewers from your pathetic rambling. Finally you practiced everything until it felt good.

What I did on June 30th reflects why bloggers don’t want to come on your show, they’re too busy. That was the end of the quarter for those of us that actually work in finance. I compiled reports, made a dozen phone calls, and sent 3 dozen emails. All the while I’m trying to plan a wedding and take care of some other personal things. I stayed late because I didn’t get all my work done. I went home and worked out for a grand total of 30 minutes while watching Niall Ferguson’s Ascent of Money Series preview. After dinner I was too mentally exhausted to put together a post so used a guest post I’d been saving for such a day. By the time I was done loading the post and read a blog for 30 minutes it was bed time.

The bloggers you called out live similar lives to mine. Most of them probably have kids too, further eating into their time. By coming on your show they’re giving up they’re precious free time to appease a schmuck. You’re on the clock on your show, the rest of us aren’t.

Then there’s that whole “your show” thing. You can’t invite someone on your show to share opinions, then interrupt them and not allow them to finish their comments. That’s a pathetic attempt at a debate. Simply cutting someone off and saying they’re argument isn’t good doesn’t make it true. It looks like you got your debating lessons from Bill O’Rielly himself, the king of this classic sad tactic to win arguments. If you want to have a real discussion you have it in a neutral location. You aren’t allowed to have writers, and it won’t be your show. This is why Bill never leaves the comfort of his own desk except when to promote his next book. This is the other reasons we don’t want to go on your show, we aren’t interested in being bullied in by someone who has no interest in actual debate, but only aims to exploit that person to support their own opinions.

I said I might not attack your claims that the recession is over but I already don’t like you now so I’m going to. Anyone can cherry-pick 6 graphs to make their point. It wouldn’t even take in intern 3 months to design a database that tracks all economic data allowing one of your production assistants to simply query “data that supports the recession is over”. With CNBC’s budget you likely have something more advanced than this but fundamentally the same. I can make an argument for anything citing circumstantial evidence. If I could spend 40 hours a week staring at charts and data mining I could get you even better charts than the crap you got. You should fire whoever did that hack job for you. If you’re so sure this recession is over then dump your entire portfolio into a leveraged S&P 500 long ETF. Better yet, take your “evidence” to the editors of the Journal of Financial Economics and watch them laugh you out of the room. Half of the reason Weakonomics exist is because of tools like yourself.

Here’s the video which I got from Clusterstock

My favorite part is when he calls his segment the “Real Deal With Dennis Kneale, because it rhymes”. Here’s something else that rhymes:

The Real Deal With Dennis Kneale makes my gut feel like I’m going to keel over, perhaps puking my meal. Maybe if I kneel down and peel my eyelids I can watch Kneale’s Real Deal and find some appeal. No I can’t conceal that I’d like to shove my heel up this douchebag’s seal. His words are bringing up my lunch of cornmeal and oatmeal fried veal. I must stop my spiel.

You sir, are disgrace to economics, of which you have no training in but pretend to. You are disgrace to journalism, of which you’ve made a career from.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics.

categories: economics, investing, personal