Fox Business Network anchor stirs up controversy

By Buck Wargo

Friday, Dec. 3, 2010 | 3 a.m.

It doesn’t take much these days to stir up political passions on the right and left by mentioning two symbols: President Barack Obama and Fox News.

I recently covered the annual luncheon of the Nevada Development Authority that featured business journalist Stuart Varney, a Fox Business Network anchor. The authority has featured former President Bill Clinton that surely stirred up reactions on both sides of the aisle.

Varney, a graduate of the London School of Economics, entertained the crowd with his humor and style all the while poking fun at himself.

Although well received by the audience of business executives and others who mostly lean right, Varney’s comments, which were more about politics than economics, generated more than 100 comments online — the most for one of my stories posted on the Las Vegas Sun website, as far as I remember.

I can’t say I was surprised because I knew writing anything with the lead about Obama and Fox would generate a lot of interest in this political climate.

Varney stoked those passions when he tried to point blame the Great Recession on Obama’s election and Democratic policies, and suggested that the election of a Republican House will lead to an improved economy.

Those comments are throwing red meat to a lion. Varney didn’t even mention President George W. Bush, the Federal Reserve, federal regulation, derivatives or the housing crisis or that the recession began a full year before Obama’s election.

Varney said the Great Recession resulted from the panic in the election, the $787 billion stimulus plan and record-setting budgets during the Obama administration.

Since his speech, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the stimulus put 1.4 million to 3.6 million people to work and boosted national output by 1.4 percent to 4.1 percent during the third quarter.

The report said the stimulus blunted the recession and that without it, the current national jobless rate of 9.6 percent would be 10.4 percent to 11.6 percent.

Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has called on Congress to take additional steps to stimulate the economy.

Varney is having none of that. Now, the Republican takeover of the House has shifted political power in Washington because all spending measures start there, Varney said. Because the House has control of the purse strings, Republicans will have a lot to say about economic policy going forward, he said.

“I think that will make an enormous difference for economic policy and to the performance our economy in the immediate future,” Varney said.

With Congress not enacting policies that the Democrats want, confidence in the private sector will improve, he said. He predicted the gross domestic product will grow by 3 percent in the spring and 4 percent by summer and fall, especially with the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.

“There is this magic thing called confidence,” Varney said. “I think we’re already seeing some growth in the economy, and the shift in political power that we saw a few weeks ago will enhance that growth. I think we’re just in the beginning of an improvement of growth that you surely will feel here in Nevada.”

All of that stirred up readers.

One named William wasn’t impressed with Varney’s analysis, calling him a political hack for Fox.

“Blame the Dems for all the problems,” William wrote. “Just imagine if nothing was done. There would have been a depression that would have made the Great Depression of the 1930s look like nothing happened.”

Another pointed out that the collapse of Lehman Bros. in September 2008, which lead to panic and need for a federal bailout, happened two months before the election.

On the opposite side, Robert sided with Varney in his analysis of the economic problems.

“The whining coming from the left is laughable,” said Robert, who expressed surprised that the Las Vegas Sun would even run the story on its website.

In other news

• A 1.36-acre property with frontage on Las Vegas Boulevard has been listed for sale by real estate auction firm J.P. King Auction Co. The property, just north of the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign will be sold through a sealed-bid auction.

Bids must be submitted by Dec. 13 for the site that is zoned for casino use. The 48-room Diamond Inn Motel across from the Mandalay Bay occupies the site now.

• California-based MPG Office Trust has hired Atalon Management Group as a restructuring adviser. Atalon has managed Lake Las Vegas through its financial woes. MPG, formerly known as Maguire Partners, has been reworking loans and selling buildings to reduce its debt from its purchase of 24 office properties and 11 development sites from Blackstone Group in 2007. Frederick Chin, president and CEO of Atalon, is stepping aside from his oversight of Lake Las Vegas to focus on MPG. Chin said he will spend most of his time in Los Angeles.