I like and appreciate C-SPAN and have great admiration for it's founder, Brian Lamb.
But my appearance on Christmas morning was the first time I had been C-SPAN for about a decade. There are two reasons.
First, they haven't called.
Second, I haven't reached out to them because the calls you receive while on the air are often from very angry people for who facts and rational arguments are of little interest.
One of my biggest concerns about the ongoing mortgage situation is the continuing (or even growing) use of anecdotes about what brokers and lenders did to excuse homebuyers from taking any responsibility for their actions.
From Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address:
...As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government --must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
There are times that George W. Bush's audacity on budget matters is truly breathtaking.
The president last week said that Congress hadn't done enough to slow the growth of earmarks and had directed OMB Director Jim Nussle to consider ways not to spend the designated funds.
Unlike some of the others you see on TV, Steve Liesman, the economist-in-chief at CNBC, is an excellent reporter (Full disclosure: I know Steve and for years have had the opportunity to talk with him in front of and behind the camera).
