The Tyee – Obama 'Destroying' Savings

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Obama 'Destroying' Savings

VIDEO: This from the same CNBC pundits that claimed 'Bear Stearns is fine!' So why are their ratings up?

By Ben Shingler, 10 Mar 2009, TheTyee.ca

Jon Stewart

Stewart: 'Wall Street is mad as hell!'

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week aired a nine-minute montage on the blindly optimistic advice offered by "experts" from the business news network CNBC in the months leading up to last fall's financial crisis.

Highlights include a clip from Mad Money host Jim Cramer, who gave this counsel on Bear Stearns last fall: "Bear Stearns is fine... If there is one take away, it's that Bear Stearns is not in trouble. Don't move your money from Bear, that's just silly." The investment bank went under six days later.

The lack of sober financial analysis in the mainstream media has been well-documented, as has the rise of the comedian as the only voice speaking truth to power, but Stewart's exposé raises a new concern.

With economic attention focused on Washington, CNBC and other cable networks are spending less time offering up stock picks and more time criticizing the federal government's bailout plans, without paying much attention to the facts themselves. (According to a recent New York Times article, CNBC journalists "have been encouraged to speak their minds, making the line between reporter and commentator almost indistinguishable at times.")

Cramer, for instance, said on his show last week that the Obama administration's agenda was "destroying the life savings of millions of Americans."

Ratings so far this year are above average for the 20-year old network. Its success is likely due to this shift from reporting to punditry, drawing in viewers looking to be entertained rather than informed.

The worst example comes from a rant by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli, who was actually the inspiration for the Daily Show montage in the first place. (He cancelled his appearance on the show at the last minute -- not a wise move, as John McCain learned after cancelling on David Letterman.)

In the video, Santelli, a former derivatives trader, calls homeowners struggling to pay their loans "losers" during a segment broadcast from the Chicago Board of Trade.

"How many of you people want to pay for their neighbour's mortgage, that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills, raise their hand!" he asks traders. They respond with a chorus of boos. "President Obama, are you listening?" he asks.

And then Stewart: "Yeah man, Wall Street is mad as hell. They're not going to take it anymore. Unless by 'it,' you mean $2 trillion in their own bailout money. That, they will take."

Apparently, some Americans are listening. Let's hope more are laughing.

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Ben Shingler writes regularly about online video for The Tyee.

6

Van Isle

3 years ago

Suggest as offensive

Saw th original show and it

Saw th original show and it was spot on.

James Burns

3 years ago

Suggest as offensive

ah the Americans are just

ah the Americans are just having a hard time coming to grips with reality.

White is black (the US president).

Up is down (the US economy).

Capitalism is socialism (if you're a US bank).

The beacon of freedom and democracy is the evil empire (Iraq: over 1 million dead, 2 million internally displaced, and 2 million externally displaced refugees mostly in Syria and Jordan...).

Santelli is just stuck in an old myth: that rugged individualists through their own heroic efforts achieve their success by defying the odds. But really what the Americans have is a crusty elite comprised mostly of multi-generationally rich daddy's boys.

All that inbred corruption is catching up with them is all.

Oh and we here shouldn't be too smug. We're gonna be very visibly suffering from the excesses Canadian elite corruption soon enough.

demotto

3 years ago

Suggest as offensive

Time

To read and use the Bills of Exchange Act and use it the way we are supposed to to pay for what we need for day to day life instead of postponing the debt by using Bank of Canada debt notes. There is actually only around 50 billion dollars of them in circulation for us to trade amongst ourselves the rest is 1's and 0's in a computer. So if you don't have 1,500 dollars of them for each member of your family you don't have your share. Remember the bank notes are for us to exchange amongst ourselves not to pay corporations, the Bills of Exchange Act is for that purpose. Learn it
Use it it is there for us as there is no real money. Ask your self DOLLARS OF WHAT? I bet you can't answer that question.

shabbaranks

3 years ago

Suggest as offensive

There is an unquestioned

There is an unquestioned logic in the financial services community that may be the cause of a great deal of consternation to brokers, fund manager and bankers.

Countless articles, analysts and insight from pros always repeat the same mantra: "the market will recover".

They have charts that prove this and they believe in this the same way we do the theory of relativity, that each night will have its dawn and the Canucks will choke in the playoffs. These are facts to this group, not theories or best guesses.

It's not that they are having a hard time coming to grips with reality, it's that the reality that they all know has disappeared. They are having a hard time coming to grips with unreality.

I came to the realisation that the market may not recover, when I remembered that all this, "it will recover" logic is based on about 100 years of market capitalism. I don't think that's been enough time to test the hypothesis.