Larry Kudlow at Woody Johnson’s “Wig Out” 60th birthday party, April 12, 2007. Photo credit: Patrick McMullan Co.

In these tough economic times, isn’t it nice to know that calamitous natural disasters needn't have an adverse affect on your investment portfolio? After the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan failed to induce a market nosedive, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow expressed his relief in terms that seemed to appall even his fellow cheerleaders for capitalism: “The human toll here,” he declared, “looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.” (Skip ahead to 0:38 on the video after the jump.)[#iframe: http://www.criticalmention.com/components/url_gen/play_flash.php?autoplay=1&clip_info=1887577957%7C0%7C59%5E]||||||

One thing we’re grateful for: the existence of channel changers.

Update: On Friday evening, Kudlow offered an apology for his comments through the most intimate means at his disposal—no, not his television show that was airing in an hour—his Twitter account. “I did not mean to say human toll in Japan less important than economic toll,” he wrote. “Talking about markets. I flubbed the line. Sincere apology.”