Month: March 16, 2009

So here’s a follow up to the last blog I posted, having to do with Jim Cramer of CNBC suggesting that hedge fund managers should manipulate the market, even illegally, to make a quick buck. Jon Stewart’s interview with Cramer on the Daily Show wasn’t sparked by the same video I posted but that video was used during the interview. The initial reason for all this was Stewart criticizing Rick Santelli of CNBC, who had a little rant on a trading floor about not wanting to pay for the mortgages of “losers”. The bit was criticized by The Daily Show, mocking the fact that CNBC regularly gives bad advice that could very well lead people to be one of these “losers”. Cramer decided to take Stewart’s sarcasm to heart and shot back at him. Everything escalated from there and culminated in this truly uncomfortable interview:

Personally, I loved this. It seems like a lot of people missed the point but I thought it was great. After reading reactions to the show, I found a lot of people talking about whether Stewart or Cramer won this battle or whether Cramer makes bad stock picks or whether Stewart is funny. All of that is completely beside the point. This wasn’t about Jon Stewart or Jim Cramer or even CNBC, this was about the shady greed of Wall Street that is allowed to fester. At one point, Cramer actually says that it’s difficult to come on TV and tell people that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson just lied to you left and right. Why is it so hard to call CEOs and government officials liars when they’re clearly lying? Isn’t this the job of any reputable news organization? Why does CNBC allow CEOs to give them a false reality to broadcast to its audience? This is part of the problem. This is why we have honest people losing their homes, their retirement savings, and their jobs. When Jon Stewart tells Jim Cramer, “This isn’t a fucking game”, you can tell he means it and it’s astounding to me that a comedian is the only person willing to come forward and say this. I don’t know about others out there, but I personally know people who are losing jobs that never did anything wrong. Some of these people have been working hard at the same place for 35 years and because of hedge fund managers like Jim Cramer, complacent reporting, and a world that allowed greed to reign king for far too long, that’s all over.

I guess I just want to make sure that people pay attention to this because you never know who’s next. I’m not against greed, there is such a thing as healthy greed, and I’m not against having a free market, but this is ridiculous.

This is amazing. I don’t have time to comment on it and I don’t know what I could say other than mentioning that the SEC needs to start understanding what these guys are doing so they can be sent to jail. Just watch in amazement as Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money, suggests that hedge fund managers should illegally manipulate the market because it will make them money. This guy should be hung by his testicles in the middle of Wall Street.