Maybe they don't know everything

Rod Walton of the Tulsa World writes Sunday that the financial experts on business news cable network CNBC might not be as smart as they sound.

Walton writes, “Sometimes I wonder if we the TV sages all aren’t a little pitchy, certainly a little wordy and hyper- excited about the sound of their own voices. In some ways I admire the so-called talking heads, so sure of the foundation of their arguments, so convinced that they saw this coming all along, why didn’t you?

“No, I didn’t. The subprime crisis and the stock market are pretty much a mystery to me, maybe as much as the notes and clefs that instruct someone on how to play Mozart. I know the system works pretty well for the long haul, so I trust in that and keep my small amount of money right where it is.

“My nagging suspicion is that all of these experts really know little about the future. I never heard the phrases ‘derivatives’ or “subprimes’ until the bottoms started falling out.

“Business is no different than any other news. We report it after the fact and get someone smart to tell us what it means. Perhaps we should just rest uneasy in the arms of history, keep our retirement funds focused on the long run, and tune out the off-key predictions of television’s talented talkers and fiscal critics. Maybe they don’t know everything.”

Read more here.