Among the Reasons I Like Fox business

I have been a faithful viewer of Fox News for years and I was giddy as a young teenager at a Hanna Montana concert as I waited for the launch of Fox Business last October. I have not been disappointed. Fox Business has made extraordinary strides in bridging the divide between Wall Street and Main Street, it has developed a personality driven network (versus purely an issue focus) that is necessary in producing quality programming, and it has more resources available on finance and business than any other network (aided recently with its purchase of the Wall Street Journal.

Fox Business is also very entrepreneurial. In spite of the vast resources of its parent company, News Corp, the network has used some good old fashioned guerilla marketing to get the word out on the network. Recently, I wrote a post about Neil Cavuto's absence at Fox Business due to his battle with MS (fortunately he is back). Within a day of that post I received a call from Fox Business thanking me for the article and to see if I would be interested in having Cavuto and other personalities on my show. My decision required very little deliberation.

Before I received that call I had already enjoyed visits with Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalist Pig (a regular on Fox's popular Cashin' In) and Charles Payne of Wall Street Strategies (and a regular on Money for Breakfast). Everyone associated with the network is eager to get the word out to others. Since the network has contacted me I have had great interviews with Alexis Glick (Vice President of Business News and an anchor of Money for Breakfast) and David Asman (Forbes on Fox and America's Nightly Scoreboard). In the next few weeks I am scheduled to interview Neil Cavuto (Managing Editor of Fox Business and anchor), someone whom I have long been interested in having on the show.

Besides being an innovative approach to marketing, the contacting of Fox Business to our media only reinforces its commitment to Main Street business, because that is what my show is largely about. Just one more reason Fox Business is one of my favorite networks.

Kevin Price's articles are found daily in national publications such as USA Today, Chicago Sun Times, and Reuters. Subscribe to his newsletter here.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review.

Conservative Rhetoric Wrong on Credit Crisis

I believe in the power of free markets, the importance of private property, and the necessity of limited government as much as anyone. Very few question my "conservative credentials." However, I have recently begun to question some of the rhetoric that is being used by many rather prominent proponents of free enterprise when it comes to the credit crisis.

In recent months I have had Steve Moore (Wall Street Journal), Jonathan Hoenig (Fox Business), Craig Smith (frequently on CNBC and Fox), Charles Payne (Fox Business), and others on my radio show and the topic of the mortgage situation will often come up. I typically agree with the experts on the vast majority of issues we discuss and they are among the most brilliant analysts in the media today. In fact, I even agree with them on their assessment of the sub-prime crisis, I just strongly disagree with their rhetoric.

In every case and without exemption, these authorities said that the crisis was simply due to a "large group of people who had no business buying a house in a first place" (almost a direct quote of several of those listed above). Conservatives are often accused of being elitist and it is due to statements such as this.

Who is it to say which person should qualify for a home or who should be a home owner? If you believe in free markets, that is the responsibility of the mortgage companies and other financial institutes that are willing to take the risk, not the government or pundits. However, it is also imperative that those companies take responsibility if things go wrong with the loan. The economy shouldn't have to suffer from the moral hazard being created when mortgage companies take risks and then get bailed out by the government. That will lead to businesses taking more risks, with the belief they will be bailed out in the end if it doesn't work out.

Because of the anti-consumer rhetoric being spoken by these free market thinkers, people who could get a loan no other way than through a sub-prime approach may never qualify for a loan again. Yet, the number of loans by such persons that are going into foreclosure are in the single digits. The majority of these people are pleased to own a home this way because they wouldn't have been able to get one any other way because they are self-employed. They had all the "business" in the world getting such loans, the financial institutions that underwrote them had no right to a government bailout. That should be the focus of conservative critics.

The results of this crisis are bailouts for the mega rich corporations and the future punishment of every person who needs variable interest rates loans in order to get a home. Some how, the latter is being projected as the "bad guy". Advocates of freedom should defend the individuals who were creative in their pursuit of their homes -- the vast majority who have kept up their payments. Those who couldn't pay should suffer the consequences. Meanwhile, the businesses who made poor decisions in whom they loaned money to should be allowed to suffer the consequences for their decisions. Heads should roll, companies should be purchased by others, and changes should be made internally. But prohibiting sub-prime laws publishes the wrong individuals.

The free market advocates at the beginning of this piece are largely right in their thinking. The government should not bailout bad business decision making. However, they were wrong in the rhetoric. No one, but the ones who make a loan, should say who is worthy of being financed. Not only does such rhetoric do nothing in winning hearts and minds to free market principles, it is contrary to the ideas of freedom itself.

Kevin Price's articles are found daily in national publications such as USA Today, Chicago Sun Times, and Reuters. Subscribe to his newsletter here.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review.

Sneak Peek of This Week's Show

I'm not much for brash commercialism in this blog, but there are several guests coming up this week on the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) that you might want to be aware of.




On Tuesday, Floyd Brown, who is a nationally known economist and Washington, DC political consultant will discuss why McCain will likely be our next President. Sound improbable? The current Democrat opponents are actually perfect competition for the Arizona Senator, according to Brown.


Also on Tuesday, Troy Dunn, author of Young Bucks (a phenomenal book on raising successful kids), will be on to discuss his unique philosophy on building future business leaders. I receive many more books than I could ever read from potential guests, but Troy's book is must reading and you can order it here. You can either raise financially successful adults or perennially dependent adult children. This book can help you in pointing your child in the right direction.


Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalist Pig and Charles Payne of Wall Street Strategies, two regulars from Fox Business and Fox News, will both be on Wednesday to discuss what is going on in the volatile stock market. They always provide great answers to the complex business environment of today. Hear recent interviews by Jonathan and Charles from the Houston Business Show archive.


Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

On the Show: Jonathan Hoenig Challenges Conventional Wisdom

On of my favorite regular guests on my show is Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalist Pig, Fox Business, and Fox News. He is one of the few guests that actually tells it "like it is" and holds very little back. He's a libertarian in the Ayn Rand tradition and is unwavering in his convictions.

I don't agree with him on everything. The roots to his philosophy are clearly intellectual, mine are actually more religious buttressed with academia. In this interview we have an exchange regarding the "Christian Right" that sheds some light on both of our perspectives.

Still, Jonathan is a brilliant and fascinating guest, one that I always enjoy on the program. Furthermore, I am looking forward to having him on as a guest on this Thursday's (February 28th at 11 AM) Houston Business Show.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Jonathan Hoenig: Capitalist Pig?

Jonathan Hoenig -- known as the "Capitalist Pig" (and proud of it) and a regular contributor to Fox News and Fox Business -- was a guest today on the Houston Business Show. I have great guests all the time and Jonathan is one of my favorites.

I like Jonathan because he's not ashamed about his passion about free markets. He doesn't merely discuss economic efficiency, but economic morality, a greatly missed theme in discussions today. What do I mean by "economic morality"? There is a morality to everything, including political economy. When government gives something to one group "for free," they do it at the expense of others. This redistribution of wealth is immoral.

While others decry the fact that governments efforts in philanthropy (aka, "welfare") because they do an inefficient job, Hoenig argues that it is wrong. Period. It's fine to decry the terrible job the government does in redistributing wealth. But if government some how became efficient at it, would it some how make such actions "good"? I don't think so and neither does Jonathan Hoenig and his arguments are a refreshing edition to the political and economic debate.

Trapper John Vs. the Capitalist Pig

In an interesting exchange on Fox News' Cashin In, "Capitalist Pig" Jonathan Hoenig (photo) debated Wayne Rogers of MASH fame on the virtues of capitalism. To the outside observer one would think they were saying the same thing -- both were speaking about the virtues of the market.

The focus of the debate was whether or not businesses were a positive force in society and in what ways? Most on the panel largely agreed that capitalism is good and immediately cited the huge amounts businesses contribute to philanthropic causes. Wayne Rogers was particularly passionate, pointing out that "whatever government does, it does poorly." Corporations, Rogers argued, are doing far more for social good in its activities than government could ever do.

Hoenig, who is an unabashed libertarian, on the surface should have been in complete agreement with Rogers, but came out quite critical of the argument. In the Ronald Reagan, "the best social program is a job" tradition, Hoenig said that the economy created by business was all the case that needed to be made in its defense. All of the discussions on philanthropy implies that business needed to defend itself, which was wrong in Hoenig's view. Private property is moral. Free enterprise is moral. These are principles that should be defended.

It was a strange, but powerful argument, to hear in this upside down culture we live in. A culture that has forgotten the goose which laid the golden egg that made this nation the most prosperous in the history of mankind. A defense for free enterprise because of what it does naturally, nothing else. I hope to hear more arguments like that in the future.