As Managing Editor of Forbes Magazine and snarky contributor to FOX News' Saturday morning financial show Forbes on Fox (I think it was called The Forbes Report at the time), Dennis Kneale was amongst the most annoying people working in television.  Since his move to CNBC, Mr. Kneale has become more palatable and has exhibited a previously well hidden sense of humor - plus he doesn't get along with Charlie Gasparino which can only be a sign of good judgment.  Last Friday, in discussing the previous day's Senate Banking Committee hearing DK made a statement which echoes my feelings about this five hour long exercise in induced narcolepsy, to wit: "...this wasn't government in the sunlight, this was grandstanding in the klieg lights."

Even more disturbing than the star turns some of the senators took as the cameras rolled was the lack of star power the cameras revealed.  As CNBC's Senior Economics Reporter Steve Liesman put it - in his omnipresent condescending and college professor tone - when replying to Dennis Kneale's assertion that the senators seemed less than knowledgeable, "Your surpise that these guys don't understand this stuff is a surprise to me.  Of course they don't.  I watch them all the time, they have no clue."  These comments would be standard commentators' cynical dismissal of the political process were it not for other remarks that came between what Mr. Kneale said and what Mr. Liesman said.

Mr. Kneale after allowing that he was stunned by the quarter inch depth most of the senators had into economic theory opined that the senators "should not be interfering in monetary policy at all.  I was really impressed with the guys that were testifying...the experts.  They should leave it to them and get out of the way."  DK's opinion of the panel as a whole led to Steve Liesman's embrace of Tim Geithner, President of the New York FED.
"I have known him for many years to be an impressive guy and he knows the job that he is doing."  SL continued, "He hates being in public.  He hates giving speeches.  He doesn't think that any part of his job is doing that..."

So, what did the taxpayer - who has taken on $30 billion of debt underpinned by collateral that said tax payer can't examine - learned after two days of testimony before the Senate and the comments of Mr. Kneale and Mr. Liesman?  First, at least one financial institution was both too big and too intertangled with other institutions to be allowed to fail - and one is probably not a lonely number, most other of the name brand investment houses are both too large and too interlocked to be allowed to go white belly up.  Second, that most of the elected officials who should be overseeing the overseers of the financial system were probably C students in first year college econ.  Third, that given the size and complexity of the financial system and the paucity of most legislators understanding of that system the noise the viewers heard during the hearings was most of the testimony going over the senators' heads.  Fourth, if Steve Liesman is correct - and he and Tim Geithner are tight - the President of the New York FED doesn't see it as his responsibility to report to the American people why Bear Stearns was bailed out with taxpayer money.  Fifth, neither the folks who are paying the bills nor the people they have elected to represent them know squat about SIVs and CDOs and credit default swaps much less the monetary theory needed to undo the harm this economic alphabet has done.  Sixth, rather than bore CNBC's viewing public to ESPN with endless hours of testimony from Chairman Ben and Tim the Impressive Prez, the government should just cede power to the FED totally free of oversight. 

Now I'm no student of economics and Steve Liesman would I'm sure have my cable access to CNBC blocked but...didn't we just finish virtually ceding power without knowledgeable oversight to Allen Greenspan and don't many now think that his credit policies are in some way responsible for the  the current subprime crisis?

Ya'll sleep tight now, ya hear?