Rob Insana Lecture

Rob Insana, a financial analyst for CNBC, came to SMU on Monday as a part of the Tate Lecture Series.He speaks of his past, saying he never took an economics class and how he learned all he knows because he was thrown into the business. Insana was originally a music major before switching to a film major.

Insana started out as a producing assistant at Financial News Network and then he became a producer. By "accident," when both anchors at FNN called in sick on the same day, he had to take their place and has since spent 21 years on the air.

On Monday, Insana spoke of the market and being able to predict outcomes. Looking back, he says, there are examples of events drastically influencing the market. One example he gave was when President Kennedy was assasinated. Before the world knew that the president was shot, the stock market fell. Because of this Insana says that markets move seemingly in advance to events.

He also spoke of technology and how it influenced the market. He mentioned the iPod and HDTV and said the market could "explode" if the iPod found a way to become wireless.

Honestly, I do not know anything about markets and stocks. I've never had much of an interest in this area, and don't know if I ever will. The few majors I knew I'd always avoid were math, science and business. They just don't interest me at all. It was hard to relate to much of Insana's lecture because most of what he spoke about was foreign to me.

The one part I could understand and relate to was when he spoke about business journalism. He says that often business journalists will know much about politics and other subjects, but political journalists rarely know as much about business. Insana adds that the financial community often has the first word in news. Because there is so much money involved, the supporters need to be updated and kept up to date. Otherwise, the monetary support could be taken away.

I don't really know how much I enjoyed the lecture on Monday; perhaps it is because of my lacking knowledge of stocks and business. I thought I would be able to avoid delving into this area, but according to Insana, it's important for me and other future journalists to know. I don't like this idea, but I'm open to it. I guess it's time to crack open the Business section and try to catch up.