Crusher vs. Cramer
March 14, 2009
Something constructive has come of the Santelli rant after all, albeit through a rather circuitous route. The above video is the meatier portion of the whole escapade thus far. After being taunted by NBC for just being a comedian, taking things out of context, and making funny faces, Jon Stewart had Cramer on his show and conducted the interview in a more serious and constructive manner than you will see any of the so-called journalists who leveled these accusations do themselves. Cramer was friendly and apologetic, so this must have been a hard thing to do to the man, but Stewart met any evasions with career crushing force. There have been responses from most of the major media and the White House.
CNN has a poll up that asks readers whether they see this interview as being a comic diversion or serious business. Comedy is winning 52-48. This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what went down. A bit of background for those of you not well versed in investing; a short is when a broker sells you an investment they don’t own because they think it will go down. They intend to take your money, and when the stock goes down and you wish to sell, they just give you some of your money back and pocket the rest. Kind of like a Ponzi scheme, in the sense that if the stock market booms and everyone wants their money, we see a whole new scandal. This is legal. Some of what he was admitting to doing was not. Listen carefully to the clips Stewart plays, rewind if you have to, but make sure you understand what Cramer was admitting to. He isn’t a rogue bad apple. This is business as usual and whole system is full of rot. The government is rotten, the banks are rotten, as are the analysts, the brokers, the corporations, the media, and the investors. This isn’t something we can just make more rules against. This isn’t a failure of the free market. The people who make the rules are the same people breaking them. What we need is simple transparency. Jon Stewart has given us a taste.
Rick Santelli
March 7, 2009
I was recently baffled by the outbreak of support for a Santelli rant. You can find it on Thoughts Aloud, or The Intellectual Redneck. In this case, Santelli got a bunch of Wall Street investors to boo people with an extra bathroom for being the cause and recipient of government bailouts. He suggested we all go have Chicago tea party in July in protest. And do what? Should we all go to Chicago and not pay our mortgage? It seems all you have to do to impress conservatives these days is get so worked up with mock outrage that the cameraman needs a spittle guard. The biggest problem I have with Republicans of late is their willingness to start running with torches and pitchforks without deciding first what their goals are. Going along with them is like hunting with Dick Cheney.
I was ready to let the matter drop until I saw this response by Jon Stewart over at The Osterley Times, as well as politickybitch. I would have loved to see Santelli on the show, but he apparently didn’t have as much to talk about as he thought he did. Stewart goes on at length to show how CNBC analysts are almost as bad as FOX News analysts. Please, if you care about your money, don’t listen to these analysts; they clearly have a conflict of interest.
A Great Predictor
January 25, 2009
If you want to know what is coming, one of the best predictors out there is FOX News. Look for the guy they are all ganging up on and laughing at, telling him he is crazy; that man is right. The question is, why are FOX News reporters always wrong? If they were just dumb, they ought to be right nearly half the time, right? Who stood to profit by getting the gullible to buy into these institutions?
Unbelieveable! Pat Buchanan steps over the line in the sand!
January 17, 2009
Today, the post on the official Pat Buchanan website is entitled “Has Israel Become A Neo-Nazi Germany?”
Pat has done the unthinkable for a major political commentator, he has invoked Godwin’s law at the highest level, comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.
James Carville once said about Hillary and Obama, “If she gave him one of her cojones, they’d both have two.”
I would say of Pat Buchanan that if he gave Bush one of his cajones, the man wouldn’t be able to lift it.
How Does Inflation Work?
December 27, 2008
This motion picture from the depression era explains nearly everything. Well, this is a cow…