Last week an unusual event happened. It occurred on a “news program,” but not on one of the networks prime time shows or, for that matter, even on CNN. It happened on Comedy Central’s late night program, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In fact, NPR and others are calling it a watershed event concerning the current economic and foreclosure crisis.
For those uninitiated, Stewart had Jim Cramer from CNBC’s Mad Money as a guest. Stewart questioned Cramer for not properly watching Wall Street during the ‘shenanigans’ that lead up to the current economic melt down. All of this, which has been allegedly caused by the over leveraging of hedge funds and investment banks concerning the packaging, sale, and purchase of fangled mortgage back securities.
Stewart told Cramer in plain English that he and the rest of the financial media were “in bed” with Wall Street and rather than fulfilling their obligation as protected by the US constitution – and while, during this, the “Fourth Estate” became their unfettered cheerleaders. Stewart pointed out that Cramer, an exceptionally wealthy former hedge fund manager and Harvard graduate, knew what was going on all-along since he himself had once been part of that very culture.
I don’t want to spoil the fun, so please take a few minutes to watch the interview. This segment will help everyone understand, as I have been suggesting, that while maybe a few borrowers were over zealous in borrowing from the banks, the real culprits were the folks who got paid mega bonuses for transactions that turned out to be part of nothing other than a systemic ponzi scheme 20 times the size of Madoff!
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