Tea Party economic strategies are all the rage with far righters who want to run against the grain. There’s a glaring problem with their economic theories though: they don’t work.
One of the most vocal proponents of Tea Party economic theories is a man named Rick Santelli. He regularly appears on CNBC as a commentator (read: cartoon character) and gives his take on the economy. Santelli is often credited with giving birth to the Tea Party movement.
But when he recently appeared on CNBC, after hearing Santelli proclaim how he had been right all along about the Federal Reserve on inflation, analyst Steve Liesman had heard enough of the Tea Party diatribes and decided to put Santelli in his place.
“It’s impossible for you to have been more wrong, Rick. Your call for inflation, the destruction of the dollar, the failure of the US economy to rebound. RIck, it’s impossible for you to have been more wrong. Every single bit of advice you gave would have lost people money, Rick. Lost people money, Rick. Every single bit of advice. There is no piece of advice that you’ve given that’s worked, Rick. Not a single one. Not a single one, Rick. The higher interest rates never came, the inability of the U.S. to sell bonds never happened, the dollar never crashed, Rick. There isn’t a single one that’s worked for you.”
Presented with that refutation, Santelli, in typical Tea Party style, continued to try and shout over Liesman and just disregarded the takedown.
Watch the segment here:
Joshua is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. You can follow him on Twitter @Joshual33.
