CNBC’s Rick Santelli defends AIG bonuses

Doesn't CNBC learn? It was only last week that Jon Stewart railed against the network's cosy stance with the financial services industry in his now famous interview with Jim Cramer. But CNBC's financial pundits are still siding with Wall St against Main St. 

Yesterday, Rick Santelli, who reports from the bear pit of the Chicago stock exchange, questioned what he thought was the Obama administration's populist stance on bonuses paid out to AIG executives (see clip below).

Despite receiving bailout money from the government's relief programme, the insurance giant has just awarded executives $165 million, which Timothy Geithner, Obama's Treasury Secretary, is trying to block. Santelli, speaking on the 'Squawk Box' show, said he thought people should get the sums into perspective.

"Now think about it this way - maybe I'm missing something, but the outrage seems to be about 'M's - millions of dollars, right? Hundred and sixty five dollars, OK?" Santelli said, drawing a large capital 'M' on a sheet of paper.

"I would think that it should be looked at as a pretty big positive because when you go from the 'M', maybe you should try to go to the 'B's - which is the billions of dollars. And maybe that's going to even enlighten for the 'T' - trillions of dollars."

Santelli's baffling remarks are not the first time he has stood up for the big guy. In February, he said that the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, Obama's effort to curb the rate of houses being repossessed during the downturn, was "promoting bad behaviour". This was one of the comments that Stewart forced Cramer to apologise for in The Daily Show interview. "I dislike what he said. I thought it was bad... [People suffering from foreclosure are] not losers, they're fighters," Cramer said.

Santelli is not the only person to have caused controversy with comments about the AIG bonuses. Chuck Grassley, the Republican Senator from Iowa, had to defend his remarks on the subject, saying people should recognise rhetoric. Grassley had earlier said that AIG executives should either "resign, or go commit suicide".

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