Code Red, Dorothy! Get in the cellar, because the health care bill may pass this week!

The United States Senate is quickly approaching a vote on the current rendition of the health care bill, and tensions are reaching the boiling point. According to Talk Radio News Service, Tea Party Patriots staged a “Code Red” rally in Washington, D.C. in which Republican speakers like Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann assured their faithful that that Republicans are winning the debate. However,  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has gone on record as saying that a health care bill will pass the House “in a week.” If Republicans are going to “kill the bill,” they may need a last-second Hail Mary, a la Doug Flutie.

Code Red Republicans may need some Flutie-esque luck

I use the Flutie football analogy here because of something columnist George Will once said about football. He said it encapsulates two of the worst things about America: violence and committee meetings. Tea parties – as well as their counter-”patriot” equivalents – offer ample servings of both, so long as we remember that the dissemination of hate is a form of violence. That makes up for those rallies where physical violence actually fails to occur or people simply forget to bring their assault weapons. Hopefully they know that low interest loans are great for firearm safety courses.

Is there evidence in the numbers of Wall Street as to what direction the wind is blowing? Jim Cramer of “Mad Money” seems to think so. Cramer believes the current health care bill will pass, and that it will cost America dearly. We’re talking deeper recession dearly. “We have to wonder if this is one of those occasions, like in 2008, where the market doesn’t see the coming catastrophe. Or perhaps the market sees any resolution as positive,” he writes for RealMoney.

Jim Cramer sees the floodgates opening

Cap and trade, card check unionization and immigrant amnesty are on the way, claims Cramer. He cites Wal-Mart’s “inability to move even on its dividend boost” as a sign that union pressure may invade even the Walton corporate sanctuary. To pay for it all, where do you think the money will come from? Cramer says higher tax rates, including capital gains and dividend tax rates, by 2011. The massive projected costs of the current health care bill will “put the double-dip recession back on the table,” in Cramer’s estimation.

Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to deal with Code Red tea parties

Doug Thornell, the National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), sent an e-mail to “Freshman and Sophomore House Democrats” regarding “Tea Party etiquette.” Their concern is decorum, while Republicans are bracing for impact. Do you know where your fast cash loans are, in case the economic winter deepens?

(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewaliferis/ / CC BY-ND 2.0)

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Don’t be like that. Be on solid ground. Check out parts ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR and FIVE.

Jon Stewart set his sights squarely on why Jim Cramer and CNBC didn’t see this financial disaster coming. Why weren’t they prepared? Why couldn’t they prepare us? Read this article series, watch the interview, and you’ll understand what Stewart suggests: that TV investing advice isn’t for the average investor. The average investor may look for personal loans on occasion.

It’s for the traders. In fact, the existence of such networks flies in the face of the traditional “buy and hold” strategy of mom and pop investors. The fast-paced buy-and-sell on a dime of day trading is not for the average investor. It’s dangerous if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, unlike 2009 NCAA bracket predictions…

The big problem that Stewart takes issue with is whether Cramer, CNBC and similar networks are responsible for raising the market up too high on toothpicks. It picked food from the teeth of Joe Investor, then shattered under its own unsustainable weight and sent them crashing down. CNBC and the like may or may not have been complicit in this tsunami, but they certainly should have been in a position to warn the public of what could happen.

Investing upstream

First of all, Cramer appears to have been too comfortable with his sources. “These people were my friends” was what he had to say about the CEOs and Wall Street insiders who lied to him. This, suggests Poniewozik, is deadly to impartial, informative journalism. “If I do that (or say that), they’ll never talk to me again” should never play into the equation.

And don’t be a lemming. It may be safe to say what the last guy said – that the stock market is up – but it takes courage and commitment to comment on where the bus is headed rather than where it’s been. Pundits like Jim Cramer would have garnered much more respect and trust if they had looked up the road and recognized the signs. Not as feel-good or exciting as screaming and throwing rubber toys around, but it’s the right thing to do. Go against the crowd.

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Pound out your frustrations over dough

The Jim Cramer/Jon Stewart ride ends here now for us. Wall Street punditry has done the average American investor wrong. Keep your eyes open and do your due diligence before taking anyone’s investing advice. Even if you take investing advice – or advice on where to find payday loans – from your dog. But if your investment adviser can’t pass a Turing test, you should be put away…

If you missed parts ONE, TWO, THREE or FOUR, check them out.

Cramer: Your ultimate goal should be to expose these shenanigans.”

Stewart: “(How can we trust) shows like “Fast Money” anymore?”

Cramer: “Jon, you and I, we’re entertainers. There’s a market for it.”

Stewart: “Yes, but there’s a market for cocaine and hookers. So what? What is the responsibility of people who cover Wall Street? Who are you responsible to? 401k and pension holders, the general public or Wall Street traders who are working hard but getting fu*&ed in this too?”

Cramer (dodging the real question): “Should we have constantly been pointing out the mistakes? Absolutely. I’m a commentator. I’m a guy trying to do an entertainment show about business. It’s tough; what am I going to do?

Stewart: “I’m under the assumption that you don’t just take (Wall Street CEOs) words at face value, that you check things out. Jim, this is unfortunate, because you’re not “the face” of this. I don’t mean to direct this solely at you. There are larger powers at work. We are both snake oil salesmen…”

Cramer: “I do not disagree with that.”

(Gulp!)

We must force these “higher powers” to be accountable for their actions. Playing with other people’s money is no game; it is a marathon that few can truly afford to lose. While the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer interview is now several days old, the memory in the collective consciousness of the entertainment media still burns. Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik blogs for “Tuned In” that we should remember that while the battle was between two men, they’re simply footsoldiers in a larger war.

As Poniewozik puts it, “There’s a big temptation to frame last night’s head-to-head between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer as a battle between two guys. But as Stewart told Cramer, to his credit, ‘This song isn’t about you.’” It certainly wasn’t a banner moment in Cramer’s career. However, the focus of this exchange was an outing. How America does (in the same way that Debbie does…) journalism is at issue. Business journalism most specifically. To finish off, do THIS…

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Jim Cramer bobblehead from the TV show Mad Money (photo by flickr)

Jim Cramer admits he and CNBC could do a better job of reporting investing news in a manner that is honest and balanced. But the beat goes on. People have lost most of their 401(k)s and are looking to cash advance loans in a jam. Check out parts ONE, TWO and THREE to follow the whole story.

Cramer (on Daily Show): “Don’t you want experienced guys like me to expose that?”

Stewart: “No, no… I want that desperately, but that’s not what we’re getting. You knew what the banks were doing – and now to pretend that this was some crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami you couldn’t see coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.”

Cramer: “I’ve known the CEO of Lehman Brothers, Dick Fuld, for 20 years. He brings me in, (I ask him how Lehman is doing) and he lies to me, lies to me, lies to me… I have called for indictments… we’ve not seen any… where are they?”

Stewart: “It’s very easy to get on this after the fact… Whose side (is CNBC) on? Wall Street traders were on a ‘Sherman’s March’ through their companies, financed by our 401(k)s, and all the incentives of their companies was for short-term profit. They burned the fu*&ing house down with our money, then they walked away rich as he&^! And you guys knew that was going on.”

Cramer: “We have reporters that try really hard. The market had been going up for a while, we thought it could continue despite the shenanigans. I didn’t think  Bear Stearns would evaporate overnight. I knew the people who ran it, I always thought they were honest. Did I get taken in? Maybe, to some degree.”

Stewart: “Selling the idea that you can sit back and get 10-20 percent return, selling this idea that you don’t have to do anything. Don’t you always know that that’s going to be a lie? How is saying ‘I’m going to teach you to be rich!’ different than an infomercial?”

It isn’t. We’ve been had. CLICK HERE for part five, where Cramer admits that – like Stewart – he’s a “snake oil salesman.”

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This is part three of my study of Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer… check out PART ONE and PART TWO first if you haven’t already. Perhaps instead of taking the investing advice of someone like Cramer, you’ll end of using cash advance loans when you’re in a pickle…

The conversation between Stewart and Cramer continues:

Cramer (vlog): “I wouldn’t purge anyone who was in the hedge fund. I would encourage anyone in the hedge fund to do it (short-sell), because it’s legal, it’s a very quick way to make money and very satisfying. No one else in the world would admit that, but I don’t care. I’m just not going to say that on TV.”

Stewart (Daily Show): (gives Cramer the business)

Cramer (on Daily Show): (shrugs shoulders) “It’s on TV now!”

Stewart: “It feels like we’re capitalizing your adventure with our money (via how we’re told to invest)… it’s a game you know is going on, but you go on television as a financial analyst and pretend it isn’t happening.”

Cramer: “Absolutely we could do better. There are shenanigans and we should call them out…”

Stewart: “The gentleman in the (vlog) is a sober, rational individual. However, the gentleman on “Mad Money” is throwing plastic cows through his legs and shouting ‘SELL! SELL! SELL!”, then coming on two days later and saying ‘I was wrong.’ I can’t reconcile your brilliance in the market with the crazy BS I see you do every night.”

Cramer: I’m (an entertainer). I’m trying to draw in an audience that might not be interested in all the details.”

Stewart: But (the rational you) sounded like plain English to me. Treat us like adults. It’s unbelievable that (you and others) had Bear Stearns and all other kinds of CEOs… you had the chance to call them to the carpet… but (Santelli and) CNBC blame the mortgage holders!”

Cramer (vlog): “You can’t create for yourself an impression that a stock is down, but you do it anyway because the FCC doesn’t understand it.”

Stewart (Daily Show): “I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a fu*&ing game. When I watch that, I can’t tell you how angry that makes me. What it says to me is you all know what’s going on. Draw a straight line from those shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear Stearns, AIG and all this derivative market stuff that is all this weird Wall Street side bet…”

Somebody loses that bet, and that somebody is you and me. CLICK HERE and see how good television investing advice could be better…

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This continues my look at Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer, the overhyped battle that teaches us that, if nothing else, investors should stay far away from television if they’re seeking sound investment advice. If you missed part one, CLICK HERE.

Jon Stewart took issue with Rick Santelli’s classification of foreclosed home buyers as “losers.” Not only is it easy for Santelli say that – he is far from the demographic at risk in this economic stew of trouble – but Stewart touched upon a serious issue. CNBC (and other TV network) Wall Street analysts like Santelli who dance about the airwaves with their bluster and decorated history, telling consumers when to buy and sell, knew that the crash was coming but said nothing. They knew how the tricks of the market – derivatives, short selling – worked, but failed to warn people who could ill afford to lose so much that they’d need more payday loans than they’re comfortable with.

Jim “Mad Money” Cramer came to CNBC’s defense

Jim Cramer, the man who bears the albatross of the moniker “In Cramer We Trust” on CNBC network commercials, called out Stewart as a mere “comedian,” someone who couldn’t possibly understand how Wall Street really works. He thought was ready to stand against the Doctor of the “Daily Show.” A war of words from a distance ensued.

On the night of Thursday, March 12, 2009, the distance was bridged. Cramer agreed to appear on “The Daily Show” to debate Stewart over whether CNBC is serving or slamming the masses with its stock market advice.

So begins the conversation

Here are some of the telling highlights of a conversation that says much about both the behind-the-scenes manipulation of Wall Street and the sorry state of what some still continue to call journalism…

The “smoking gun,” so to speak, that Stewart offers against Cramer and similar TV financial pundits is a December 2006 video interview  from a financial blog in which Cramer speaks freely about what he did as a hedge fund manager:

Cramer (vlog interview): “A lot of times when I was short at my hedge fund, I would create a level of activity beforehand. It doesn’t take much money. (It’s) short selling. I didn’t do it, but I’m trying to explain this to you.”

Stewart (on Daily Show): “It’s sounds like you’re saying you did this (you shorted).”

Note: The manipulative nature of short-selling is largely responsible for sinking investor confidence and keeping the Market in the doldrums.

Cramer (on Daily Show): “If so, then I was inarticulate.”

Find out what else Cramer and his brethren were inarticulate about by clicking HERE.

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For those of you who don’t know this already, journalism is dead. Or at least mostly dead. The boundary between clear, unbiased reporting and entertainment has been shattered, and too few of us realize that we’ve been walking on broken glass for some time. At least clean up the place a little and bandage your feet. Then you can focus on or block out what’s been bombarding you. Think critically and create from the rubble the reality you’ve been denying yourself for lack of time, imagination, effort or courage. Think of it as a cash advance for your future.

There are too few members of the global edutainment media with the skill and determination to approach issues like the meltdown of Wall Street and get straight to the point. Jon Stewart, a self-professed entertainer and host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” has the focus that so many self-professed journalists lack. In recent weeks, Stewart has taken issue with the role of financial news networks like CNBC in the current economic crisis. But a fire started – mostly edutainment media-fueled – when CNBC pundit Rick Santelli announced a little Chicago Tea Party…

The guilty throwing stones?

During a CNBC broadcast, Santelli proclaimed from the floor of CME Group in Chicago that the mortgage bailout package President Obama has put into action is an example of “government promoting bad behavior”

He went on to ask why we should subsidize “losers’” mortgages, and proposed that that kind of financial assistance should be given to “people who might actually have a chance down the road; people who can carry the water instead of drinking it.”

The well-paid CME Group analysts around Santelli applauded his elitist missive. Santelli crowed about how this “statistical cross-section of America, the silent majority” had spoken, as if financial analysts at a large firm in any way represent average Americans who were put out on the street because they dreamed of home ownership. CLICK HERE to see how Jon Stewart replied and began a “little war” with CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer!

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