Comedy on CNBC This Morning

Nouriel Roubini was a guest/host on today's CNBC morning program. Among the topics were, of course, in what phase of recession/expansion the US economy currently is.

Roubini is pretty clear about his belief that unemployment will persist for a year or so, with a weakening economic picture next year.

The comedic moment came when Roubini reiterated his view that there isn't any real private sector growth, and most companies have figured out how to do more with fewer employees. In particular, he emphatically declared,

"Those jobs aren't coming back."

CNBC's senior economic idiot, Steve Liesman, then retorted that Roubini ignored the recent data showing a minor downtick in continuing jobless claims.

As Roubini attempted to explain his contention that a few thousand people, more or less, employed, was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions of jobs needed to restore employment to pre-recession levels, Liesman began to shout over the Columbia economics professor.

As well as being funny, it was sort of a pathetic moment. Here's a so-called journalist and wannabe-economist, Liesman, who's dumber than paint, yet fancies himself the equal of genuinely-trained, degreed economists, yelling at a well-respected economist's legitimate and substantiated positions.

Roubini sort of scowled at the treatment from CNBC's resident economic buffoon, and finally waited until Liesman finally shut up.

How many more episodes like this will it take before CNBC finally fires Liesman and hires an actual economist for the network's economics coverage?