Bastille Day
Are you like me in that it does pain you to watch someone else be embarrassed, humiliated and destroyed, even though you thoroughly agree with the person doing the embarrassing, humiliating and destroying? Even though you believe the person being embarrassed, humiliated and destroyed deserves it and more? To be honest, I have not watched the entire video of the Daily Show’s destruction of Jim Cramer’s career for precisely that reason. I suppose it is my conscience telling me I shouldn’t revel in the misfortune of others no matter how deserved.
Regardless, I did enjoy Andrew Sullivan’s take on the matter, and agree, the showdown last night was a cultural and historical moment:
I watched the Daily Show with growing shock last night. Did you expect that? I expected a jolly and ultimately congenial discussion, after some banter. What Cramer walked into was an ambush of anger. He crumbled from the beginning. From then on, with the almost cruel broadcasting of his earlier glorifying of financial high-jinks, you almost had to look away. This was, in my view, a real cultural moment. It was a storming of the Bastille. It was, as Fallows notes, journalism.
…Now, I know Jim Cramer a little. The reason he crumbled last night, I think, is because deep down, he knows Stewart’s right. He isn’t that television clown all the way down. And deeper down, he knows it’s not all a game – not now they’ve run off with grandpa’s retirement money.
It’s not enough any more, guys, to make fantastic errors and then to carry on authoritatively as if nothing just happened. You will be called on it. In some ways, the blogosphere is to MSM punditry what Stewart is to Cramer: an insistent and vulgar demand for some responsibility, some moral and ethical accountabilty for previous decisions and pronouncements.
Braver, please. And louder.
I watched it, enjoyed it and was cheering Stewart on like he was an Eagle heading into the end zone.
Not.to.be.missed.teevee and I am watching it again at 8 tonight.
If Cramer wasn’t an obnoxious, screaming bully, it might be difficult to watch a come-uppance. But NAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Great comment by Sullivan, Ive watched Cramers show from the start and he`s probably the least offensive wall streeter out there. He, meaning Cramer, may have been taking one for the team, meaning everyone else. I cannot belive he would be that stupid to walk into such an exposed position after all that has happened.
I watched it too…and enjoyed every minute while the comedian took on the bankster who of course knew he was lying, while he was lying, trying to “talk up the Wall Street Ponzi Scheme” as it collapsed all around them.
Cramer graciously took the heat…and for that I respect him more so than all the other lying liars who would never go on that show and get their comeuppance.
accountability
It is like a shimmering beautiful dream. I dare not reach out my hand to it for fear that it will dissolve like a mirage.
I enjoyed watching it and Stewart taps into the anger that a lot of us are feeling right now. CNBC and other so-called journalist cheered on the looting, and they were in a position to stop it. In fact, I’m still super angry that the media is pushing “class warfare” because they are a bunch of millionaires and they might pay some more taxes.
I did feel a bit sorry for Cramer. I don’t think he’s a bad guy (I just finished rewatching the interview, focusing on Cramer this time), but he’s a tool. I hope Cramer meant it when he said he wants to do better.
That was amazing. I think that Cramer ran around all week telling everyone that Stewart was a comedian — as if meeting with his would not be a big deal. And he did get slaughtered. Stewart at some point just dropped any pretense of being funny and did perhaps one of the best of the old school 60 Minutes take downs ever.
I didn’t feel sorry for Cramer. I thought that it was simply incredible that he came on to Jon’s show with trying for the same kind of mix of happy talk and responsibility talk that his Wall Street guests got away with for so long. The difference is that Stewart didn’t let him just say his scripted PR piece — he held him to account for the horseshit.
And Robert Gibbs twists the knife just a little.
Obama should hire Roubini the NYU Economics Professor..here is a guy who has answers. Nationalize all the banks that are in trouble temporarily. Sweden did it, cleaned them up and then re privatized.
Even fiscal conversatives are now supporting a temporary bank nationalization, since the government has already provided liquidity support, injection in guarantees of 7 to 9 trillion dollars in support of the financial system.
He also recommends that everyones debt be reduced by 40%. Imagine your house now being mortgaged 40% less than today.
He says nationalization at this point is now non- partisan. We have to be pragmatic meaning the bank that is insolvent must be nationalized rather than keeping it alive. Take it over, clean it up, separate good and bad assets, and then privatize it again. Sounds good to me.
He says we have to do them all at once.. do a triage to figure out the liquidity and which are under capitalized. Which banks can be cleared and who is surviving, then start the process of restoring the credit.
The alternative , he says, is actually more dangerous! The economy will worsen, and is imploding right now. The world he says, is near depression, and what we do will affect the global economy, if we dont take this action now.
Can the US governement afford to do so? He says, he is not suggesting to nationalize them all, those who have passed the “stress test” wont be involved. We must figure out which major banks are most seriously affected, and nationalize them.
The Daily Show might be the closest we get to having a Truth Commission about the Bush years.
I feel kind of proud that Roubini and I have the same idea with a national debt reduction. Maybe my idea is not so crazy, since he proposed a much higher percentage than I did!
Hmm… if the talk about fake wealth is true (and I believe it is) then doesn’t this solution address the issue of fake debt? đŸ˜‰
Exactly – it gets it off everyone’s books, all people benefit and the bad guys lose. I figured it was a way to directly help Americans instead of shoveling money into banks and hoping Americans get help indirectly.
I respect him more than the rest of the liars, too, but that’s not saying much. If Cramer wanted to really and truly earn my respect, rather than taking the heat for his colleagues (Cramer kept trying to personalize things), he’d join with Stewart and go on the offensive instead of squirming and sweating.
A lot of that fake wealth is in real pension plans.
xstrker; Point taken. Cant wait to listen to Cramer next week to see if he actually learned the lesson. Its amazing a comedy show has to be the truth tellers of this financial debacle. Isnt that rich!