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Watching Stewart-v-Cramer with Wall Streeters and Working Folks
CNBC cheerleader-in-chief Jim Cramer's appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" grabbed the attention of Wall Street, where inside traders watched with a mix of horror and fascination as host Jon Stewart revealed the secrets of the temple.
There was a measure of amazement at the fact that someone in major media -- even if that someone was self-deprecating comedian Jon Stewart -- was acknowledging that a decade of anti-journalistic financial news had lured unsuspecting Americans into investments that banks and brokers had to know were unsound. (As Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper observed: "It took a jester to point the finger.")
Of course, Stewart was not playing the part of a comedian when he grilled Cramer about the journalistic crimes of so-called "business news" networks that encouraged working Americans to empty their savings into the glorified Ponzi schemes of Wall Street insiders and the 401(k) crooks with whom they conspired. He was doing what journalists are supposed to do, calling out a huckster, declaring that: "Listen, you knew what the banks were doing, and yet were touting it for months and months - the entire network was. So now to pretend that this was some crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that no one could have seen coming was disingenuous at best and criminal at worst."
The Comedy Central host hit the nail on the head when he accused the CNBC host of pitching "snake oil as vitamin tonic."
That isn't the sort of talk bankers and brokers are used to hearing. It frightens them -- not because it isn't true, but because the great mass of Americans aren't supposed to be let in on the secret.
So the business press was agog.
Wall Street riveted by comedy clash," headlined the Financial Times.
FoxBusiness.com picked up a Marketwatch piece and bemoaned the fact that "CNBC's Dilemma Is To Make a Recession Seem Entertaining".
The whole meltdown smackdown was such a big deal that the Wall Street Journal even found a way to make money by packaging a particularly embarrassing clip for Cramer with an ad for the Burberry spring and summer men's clothing collection.
Anything to keep the TARP profiteers amused.
But the most meaningful reaction came from ACORN, the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, which has been leading the fight to protect homeowners threatened with foreclosure. ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has been under attack by much of the business media -- and its allies in Congress -- since the start of the current crisis.
In an attempt to deflect blame from the profiteers who preyed on working families with irresponsible loan offers and unsustainable "retirement plan," politicians and commentators have tried to claim that ACORN caused the crisis by advocating for an end to redlining and other lending practices that discriminated against the poor in general and people of color in particular.
The crude lie that would blame victims for being victimized has only rarely been challenged in mainstream media.
But Stewart addressed it with an intensity and focus that drew raves from Bertha Lewis, ACORN's and chief organizer.
Lewis hailed Stewart for "taking on the banks, speculators, and financial commentators who caused this economic crisis."
In particular, the ACORN CEO celebrated Stewart's comment that: "This thing was 10 years in the making ... The idea that you could have on the guys from Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch and guys that had leveraged 35 to 1 and then blame mortgage holders, that's insane."
Noting that Stewart's now "being attacked by those who prefer to blame the crisis on hard working Americans" -- "the New York Times lectured Jon Stewart because he 'treated his guest like a C.E.O. subpoenaed to testify before Congress -- his point was not to hear Mr. Cramer out, but to act out a cathartic ritual of indignation and castigation'" -- Lewis responded: "That's right. Jon Stewart is angry -- and so are we. We're angry at the speculators and banks that got us into this mess and we're angry at the media and government that looked the other way."
- Posted in
23 Comments so far
Show AllStewart nailed Cramer and the CEO sneaking manipulative breed-type generally with clarity, force, humor, and this response from the NYTimes shows why it's now a pathetic rag.
This "thing" was not "10 years in the making", it started in 1978 when the US Gov. allowed mortgages to be securitized. Once that occurred there was no longer accountability, no chain of custody, no audit trail and no limit to the size of the shell game that could and did evolve.
To date this travesty and all of the other financial de-regulation of the past thirty years has not been reformed and the Obama Administration has not indicated any desire or intent to re-regulate.
Someone being interviewed by the media pointed out that because of this, people can stay in their homes that are foreclosed upon because no bank will be able to say for sure that they own any person's mortgage anymore...it would have been bundled and split up among dozens, if not more, of companies and investors.
"To date this travesty and all of the other financial de-regulation of the past thirty years has not been reformed and the Obama Administration has not indicated any desire or intent to re-regulate."
Nor will they. They serve their Wall St. contingent which writes the bills they pass and sign into law without reading them.
Stop complaining peasant and pay up.
ekaton
I see Stewart pissed off the Glamour Boy of Far Right Journalism: Tucker Carlson. Good, good. Now perhaps that little egotistical egg sucking square apple will go hang himself with one of his old bow ties.
The _ P E R F E C T __ W A V E __ O F __ C O M E D Y
Caused by the hot winds of punditidiotry puffery, blowharding relentlessly for less govt regulation to maximize profits ( and supposedly to float everyones boat even higher ), cumulating catastrophically -- after a mere 30 years of p o n z o m b i a f i c a t i o n.
¿ Who could have guessed it would be so hilariously f u n n y ?
I mean serious, or … TRAGIC.
Yes that's it ( someone tell the Greeks ), we've invented the T R A G I C / C O M E D Y
Namaste
Eh, a comedian squashed a small bug, film at 11. It was entertaining, Cramer certainly had it coming, and it's good for a TV funnyman to show some teeth, but I don't think he revealed anything that most Americans don't already know, that Wall Street is just a more dignified version of Atlantic City or Las Vegas, and that the game is rigged.
Maybe it's because I don't really own any stocks. I've never been one to play the market. I rarely even buy a lottery ticket.
If only Stewart could get Dick Cheney or Warren Buffet on there and be just as incisive.
It's not just the loudmouths on the financial networks. They're just shills for a system that only works for a select few and is a disaster for everyone else.
" ... that Wall Street is just a more dignified version of Atlantic City or Las Vegas, and that the game is rigged."
Might I respectfully suggest that you have reversed the situation?
I would say that Joe the Bookie down at the corner cigar store is just a more dignified version of Wall Street.
ekaton
Hear! Hear!
EKATON-Fair enough my friend. :)
This statement is representative of thoughtless statements:
"Maybe it's because I don't really own any stocks. I've never been one to play the market. I rarely even buy a lottery ticket."
The cave dweller mentality of this statement reveals a personality that is repressed by a yoke of ignorance. The simplicity of it endears the thought to emotional people in emotional times. The effects we all are laboring through become the yoke of this ignorance rather than the yoke being seen for what it is.
Ignorance.
And there is plenty of that, like mayonnaise being spread, here. There are good posts here, but more that are quips, off the cuff emotions or down right half truths.
And, therein lies the value of 'free speech,' with its self congratulations and masturbatory stroking of words written by 21st century wannabes who won't do what is needed. Of course, beyond the keyboard.
If such a state now is the reality of this country after the last 30 years, culminating with the last bastard of American polity, yet obviously twisting the current administration, why, indeed, are these words being written? There is no more proof needed. There is no legal means to defer to. Those means have become moot.
Congress is collusive, oddly enough, by its denial and enabling through the Speaker.
You need no further instance to take back this government by force. You all lack the will. As you have lacked the will to do anything but whine here.
I don't care if you hate me and chastize me for saying the brutal truth. Since when did I not receive anything else? Your romantic notions of civility are the very definition of the your enslavement.
This statement is representative of thoughtless statements:
"Maybe it's because I don't really own any stocks. I've never been one to play the market. I rarely even buy a lottery ticket."
The cave dweller mentality of this statement reveals a personality that is repressed by a yoke of ignorance. The simplicity of it endears the thought to emotional people in emotional times. The effects we all are laboring through become the yoke of this ignorance rather than the yoke being seen for what it is.
Ignorance.
And there is plenty of that, like mayonnaise being spread, here. There are good posts here, but more that are quips, off the cuff emotions or down right half truths.
And, therein lies the value of 'free speech,' with its self congratulations and masturbatory stroking of words written by 21st century wannabes who won't do what is needed. Of course, beyond the keyboard.
If such a state now is the reality of this country after the last 30 years, culminating with the last bastard of American polity, yet obviously twisting the current administration, why, indeed, are these words being written? There is no more proof needed. There is no legal means to defer to. Those means have become moot.
Congress is collusive, oddly enough, by its denial and enabling through the Speaker.
You need no further instance to take back this government by force. You all lack the will. As you have lacked the will to do anything but whine here.
I don't care if you hate me and chastize me for saying the brutal truth. Since when did I not receive anything else? Your romantic notions of civility are the very definition of the your enslavement.
I bet Cramer's audience grew as a result. Remember, at CNBC, just as with any other component of GE, PROFIT is the bottom line.
ekaton
While Stewart didn't reveal the men behind the curtain, the theatric spectacle was cathartic for many people...
To witness a genuine skewering of one TV personality by another TV personality felt both surreal and authentic....
Stewart also explained things in a layman's language for those who hadn't already figured it all out...
Yes, Stewart did the right thing. Apparantly, some of his staffers read some of the great amount of material compiled at the deepcapture blog, as some here have on previous occasions when provided with its URL. The fix was in a long time ago, but it took some time to penetrate and coopt the regulatory agencies, like the SEC. (One can go to investigatethesec.com and other allied sites for much more info not discussed on The Daily Show.)
Recall that this Stewart vs CNBC thing started with a response to Rick Santelli's rant against "loser" homeowners with an extra bathroom and who now can't afford their mortagages, and Stewart was correct to call CNBC out.
In my opinion, Santelli was projecting his anger on to the little guy while fully knowing that his pals were the ones who wrecked the rigged game, AND, knowing fully that the rigged game was not coming back. For Santelli to have been a successful trader once back when, he would have had to know how the cheat is played otherwise he would not have survived it then. CNBC knows of the cheat and will continue the cover up, although the retail sucker/"investor" has finally been scalped out of the rigged game.
Let us watch them (BigMoney cheats) then try to re-inflate the stock market while we small fry remove any assets left from 401k's and while we remove any monies we have left from the banksters' system. This whole rigged game is predicated upon duped "taxpayers" and "consumers" neither of which will soon have any money left for the Fed to "engineer" growth.
Misc. facts I would like to share: Short selling by speculators can be quashed simply by stock holders refusing to allow their shares to be held "in street name" for this aspect of share ownership allows the big firms to loan those shorted shares, in addition to other nefarious benefits to the Cheaters. Any uptick rule must be applied to ALL market participants, especially those who claim themselves as "buyers and sellers of last resort" for these folks are ALLWAYS on the correct side of price movements. Lost money does not go to 'money heaven' rather it is syphoned off by short sale profits and or syphoned off in the options market. For more detailed info on how the Cheat is played read Richard Ney's "Wall Street Jungle" Groves Press 1970, LOC #76-84477.
To close, let us take advance satisfaction in knowing that BigMoney BigCheat will not have us to kick around anymore as we consume less and stay out of their rigged game. The banksters say they need us to borrow more so they can earn their way back to profitability. Fat chance of that while we recover from a knife to our collective kidney. Oh yeah, ask, "Why does the Fed have to remain a secret, privately owned entity and who gave them claim to our tax dollars?"
I see that the New York Times is channeling Judy Miller.
You know that Stewart just lured that man into a situation that he didn't understand and was not prepared to deal with. It's just despicable behavior. God bless Jon Stewart.
Health Care in New England
Summit in Burlington Vt TOMORROW -
held at Obamas request - little lead time in announcement
There will be public demonstration supporting single payer
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090315/NEWS03/90314025/-1/NEWS05
"politicians and commentators have tried to caim that ACORN caused the crisis by advocating for an end to redlining and other lending practices that discriminated against the poor in general and people of color in particular"
The people are not as stupid as the elites want them. The people understand that the elites are responsible for the financial abuse because elites happen to be in the driver's seat, and they work to camouflage the abuse AND the destruction, rather than try to prevent it. Nobody is showing us any reason to keep the elites around. We're ostracizing them from the society, i.e. we're changing the popular attitude to zero tolerance. It's a populist experiment. We're going to give it fifty years, ehh? Is that enough?
There's good news and bad news and good news.
The good news is found all those missing trillions of dollars in a land fill in San Antonio. The bad news is that it's all covered over with spoiled, toxic tamale sauce and guarded by hundreds of vicious chupacabras so no one can get to it. The good news is they figured out if they just build a fort over it -- dubbered Fort Knox II -- they can sell shares and bail out the entire economy, just like we had a good economy when the original Fort Knox was filled with gold which backed the dollar, even though nobody ever saw it (or could be certain it was really there).
Even better, a probe has discovered there are tons and tons of diamonds in a deep shaft on the moon. It's prohibitively expensive to get at them physically or bring them here, but, of course, we don't have to. We just designate as the 'First World Trust Diamond Vault' and start trading the stocks in them. The whole world is now filthy rich -- except for those we don't let have any diamond stocks. Who needs treasure which can rust or moths (or chupcabras)can eat, or which thieves can break in and steal? Diamonds on the moon are forever.
"I will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today." __Wimpy.
I keep wondering how much of the financial elite's ill gotten cash is going to have to be paid out to protect them from the 300 MILLION GUNS IN THIS COUNTRY?
James Howard Kunstler says it's only a matter of time until the angry uprising that burns down Greenwich, Conn.
Seems like an interesting approach to the problem. In lieu of GIVING THE MONEY BACK!!!
Damn them all. Damn them.
Hey, DogLeg, I'm looking through your posts, and you don't seem to have much to add yourself aside from being smug and using a bunch of $50 words. Who the fuck are you anyway?
I was just being honest with my statement. I have no direct stake in the market, which is why I'm not particularly excited about Jon Stewart creaming this guy. You have to have money to make money, and I've never had a lot of it, and even if I did, I doubt that I'd be letting it ride on Wall Street.
You can call me a "cave dweller," and I can call you a pompous asshole, but if you don't give a shit about what I think of you, then why should I give a shit about what someone like you thinks of me, eh?
http://www.flamewarriors.com/warriorshtm/ennui.htm