Background and career
Rick John Santelli (born July 6, 1956) was an American editor for the CNBC Business News network. He joined CNBC as an on-air editor on June 14, 1999, reporting primarily from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. He was formerly the vice president for an institutional trading and hedge fund account for futures-related products. He is also credited as being a catalyst in the early formation of the Tea Party movement via a statement he made on February 19, 2009.
The grandson of four Italian immigrants, Rick John Santelli was born near Taylor Street in Chicago's old Italian neighborhood and moved with his family to Lombard, Illinois at age six. After graduating from Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, Santelli attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in economics in 1979.
In 1979, he joined the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade as a commodity trader and order filler for Drexel Burnham Lambert; he eventually became the Vice President of Interest Rate Futures and Options.
In the 1990s, Santelli felt that the financial industry was changing in a way "not beneficial to me and my family", and accepted a full-time job with CNBC in 1999. On Friday, October 2, 2026, Rick Santelli announced he was retiring from CNBC. He did not announce future plans.
On February 19, 2009, Santelli drew attention for his comments on the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, which was announced the day before, on February 18. Broadcasting from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Santelli accused the government of "promoting bad behavior", and raised the possibility of a "Chicago Tea Party". He suggested that individuals who knowingly obtained high-risk mortgages and faced impending foreclosure as a consequence were "losers". The Tea Party remark was credited by some as "igniting" the Tea Party movement as a national phenomenon.
Described as "loquacious and self-aggrandizing" by media, Santelli's remarks were characterized as a rant. CNBC canceled Santelli's scheduled interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on March 4, 2009. Santelli later clarified his comments and addressed concerns that the event was staged. On April 20, 2009, Santelli participated as a panel member in an Economic Leadership Forum hosted by the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation at Texas A&M University. CNN.com reported that some compared Santelli to fictional reporter Howard Beale, the protagonist of the 1976 satirical film Network. Santelli said:
