Obama's First 100 Days

Thanks to Sloane ("Allergic Girl") Miller for bringing this to my attention!

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Grading Obama
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Cohen vs. Cramer vs. Stewarts

Richard Cohen at The Washington Post recently wrote that Jon Stewart has been too harsh on Jim Cramer and his ilk. How could they have known that something was wrong with the state of world finance when so many business leaders took a bath along with other investors, including Cohen? For instance:

Let's start with Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who was instrumental in building what is now probably the world's most reviled corporation, AIG. He resigned as chairman and CEO in 2005, but still it is logical to assume that few people knew more about the company than Greenberg. He kept much of his net worth in AIG stock. He's now lost much of that worth....

I give you one other name: Richard Cohen. He who writes this column had some of his (extremely) hard-earned retirement funds in AIG stock. This was because I was a cautious investor, and what could be safer than an insurance behemoth? Who knew that in faraway London, a division of AIG was fooling around in stuff that virtually cratered the whole company? Not my broker. Not me. Not even Greenberg.

So how could brokers, journalists, and ex-CEOs have possibly learned about the financial malfeasance that led to the current economic crisis?

Through better business journalism—despite the trend among television financial networks to boost big business, there were plenty of stories anticipating the foreclosure crisis. Through better brokering and financial analysis—some brokers, instead of simply going along with Bernie Madoff's good reputation, did their research on him and warned clients against investing with the man; other professional analysts did foresee various aspects of the crisis. And through better governance—had officials followed up on the cautionary reports instead of floating along with the perilously expanding financial bubble, at least some of the current crisis might have been averted.

It might be that the farther that cultures get away from a major economic disaster, such as the Depression, the more likely they are to forget lessons of the past and tolerate the abandonment of investment fundamentals. The more that investors abandon fundamentals, the greater the risk of ripoffs and huge losses—but, in the meantime, the delivery of significant gains and the promise of even more gains make it harder and harder to stop the wild party and restore common sense in the mix. Perhaps it's a kind of greed-driven manic-depressive economic cycle that acts upon large numbers of brokers, analysts, investors, journalists, and regulators, when, ideally, those same people should act as a moderating force upon the cycle, preventing the swings toward the dangerous highs of unfounded exuberance and the inevitable hangovers of crippling pessimism.

Cramer vs. Stewarts

Here is the big follow-up to Jon Stewart's rant against CNBC. Again: Overdue.

And here's how Jim Cramer picked up where he left off.

Jon Stewart Reams CNBC (and Big Business, Too!)

I was going to post something about something today, I'm sure, but this Daily Show clip made me forget all about that. Pissed off because a CNBC personality canceled an appearance on the show, Stewart launched a critique of CNBC that shows how the business network screwed up its coverage of the worst economic crisis to hit the United States in decades. I don't think CNBC is solely guilty in this respect—so much of mainstream business reporting (especially on television) seems to be insanely bullish—and I wonder why we haven't seen even more of this kind of reality check, but I'll take it, share it, and hope that there's more to come.

Thanks to Gothamist for the lead.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

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Jon Stewart's Field Day with Fox Propaganda

Jon Stewart shows how Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris, McCain senior advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer, and Fox News in general engage in propagandizing on behalf of the Republican ticket. Oh—and Rove says he thinks Sarah Palin was mayor of the second-largest city in Alaska, but Wasilla is, at the most, the fourth-largest city. (It is almost twice as populous as Old Bethpage but a third of the size of Plainview.)

I have a theory: The more these people/entities bullshit, the less good there is to say about their "friends" and the less there is to criticize about their "enemies." It's too much to think Fox would change its ways, but I hope these people do not get media platforms elsewhere for this type of propaganda. Same goes for Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and Mike Savage. The scoundrels!



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