CNN’s Gerri Willis says, “Stay put, you little people.”

Well, not in those exact words.

Gerri Willis, personal finance editor on CNN, has been making her comments – I guess they’re hers; maybe they’re just written for her – about the recent stock market decline. She’s been advising the little people – she didn’t exactly use that phrase either, but it can be assumed from the context – not to sell their stock market holdings. She even used the entertainment phrase “shock jockey”.

Is she qualified to issue stock market advice? Her CNN biography doesn’t state what college degree she has, but it does state that she “attended Columbia Business School as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in 1991-92”. This site says that this program “offers qualified journalists the opportunity to enhance their understanding and knowledge of business, economics, and finance... during Columbia’s academic year from August through May... Up to ten Fellows are named each year and receive free tuition plus a stipend to offset living expenses in New York City.” How nice. Those people who have enough intelligence to learn what’s being repeated – I mean, taught – are paid to get it. (I tried to verify Ms. Willis’s attendance. This site wanted me to pay for “premium members” status to find out. I declined.)

So, is she qualified? She certainly seems to know the jargon of economics and finance. But I think that her comments now are just to try to get the “little” people not to panic and take their money out of the stock market. Now if the "bigger" people can get some money out of it, why can't the "little" people? Besides, there can't be a seller if there's no buyer.