Walker Webcast: CNBC’s David Faber in the Interviewee Seat

In a case of role reversal, David Faber, co-host of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, was the interviewee Wednesday on this week’s edition of the Walker Webcast. A recent highlight of Faber’s 30-year CNBC career was his breaking the story that the PGA Tour planned to merge its commercial operations with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf, a controversial deal that has yet to be finalized six months later. 

The would-be merger’s status as breaking news is something of a rarity, Faber told Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker. When it comes to verifying the credibility of a potential breaker, “it’s only me—I don’t rely on anybody else,” said Faber. “Which is why I don’t break a lot of stories these days. You’ve got to work really hard to break the story,” a process that for Faber entails “calling everybody and showing absolutely 100% that you’re right when it’s something of great significance.” Among the challenges of verification, he acknowledged with a laugh, was keeping track of who among his many contacts would be a reliable source for a particular topic. 

When it comes to big business news generators in 2023, it’s hard to top Elon Musk, head of Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform formerly known as Twitter—and the subject of no small amount of controversy. Asked what it’s like to interview Musk, Faber replied, “He’s difficult in a way. And he’s also the best person you could possibly interview because nothing is off-limits at all. He will answer what you ask him without his PR person in his head, without a general counsel in his head, without anybody in his head.” 

Musk is one of many high-profile business and economic leaders Faber has interviewed since joining CNBC. That roster has also included the late Bernard Ebbers, founder of WorldCom, whom Faber interviewed for what became an award-winning 2003 documentary on the company’s accounting scandal. That interview, Faber recalled, ended up being used by prosecutors in convicting Ebbers on fraud charges. 

More recently, Faber spoke with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, following DoubleLine Capital founder Jeffrey Gundlach’s prediction that the Fed would soon have to begin lowering the federal funds rate because refinancing the federal budget deficit would result in trillions of dollars in interest costs. Powell’s response: “Not my issue,” meaning that he played no part in making fiscal decisions.  

The wide-ranging interview with Faber also encompassed stock market performance, consumer debt, the 2024 elections, the future of autonomous vehicles, the media industry and Faber’s habit of receiving friends’ texts while on-camera with suggested questions to pose to his guests—a process in which Walker himself has participated.  

On-demand replays of the Dec. 13 Walker Webcast are available through the Walker Webcast channels on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.