Wikinvest Wire

There's a market for cocaine and hookers!

Friday, March 13, 2009

The online media is loaded with coverage this morning of last night's appearance by Jim Cramer on The Daily Show and for good reason. While some may have been disappointed in the showdown, as is usually the case, Jon Stewart asked at least a few questions that never even occur to most people and helped to shed some light on what is wrong with CNBC.

The videos are in three parts below with the juiciest excerpt in between.


Apparently (and understandably) Comedy Central is getting all the ad revenue they can out of this event, that first clip above barely longer than the commercial... Hmm... or maybe not... it looks like the 30 second commercials don't get cued up when they're embedded...

Here's part two and a transcript of the last minute or so is provided further below.


This is the exchange that made the biggest impression on me:
Jon Stewart: Honest or not, in what world is 35-to-1 leveraged position sane?

Jim Cramer: The world that made you 30 percent a year for year after year beginning from 1999 to 2007 and it became very easy to play.

Stewart: But, isn't that part of the problem? Selling this idea that you don't have to do anything. Anytime you sell people the idea that, "Sit back and you'll get 10 to 20 percent on your money" - don't you always know that that's going to be a lie? When are we going to realize in this country that our wealth is work - that we're workers - and by selling this idea of "Hey man, I'll teach you how to be rich" - how is that different from an infomercial?

Cramer: Well, I think that your goal should always be to try to expose that there is no easy money - I mean, I wish I had found Madoff.

Stewart: But the show is called "Fast Money".

Cramer: I think that people ... there's a market for it and we give it to them.

Stewart: There's a market for cocaine and hookers!
And here's the last minute or so.


All-in-all, it was well worth the wait.

6 comments:

Chuck Ponzi said...

I have to give it to Jon Stewart. He so eloquently and pointedly makes the thoughts of the masses come to the forefront.

A large part of the population is losing or has lost confidence in the investment markets. It is a rigged game and if you don't know who the mark is, you'd better get out.

Anonymous said...

Funny - I thought that bit you quoted was the best part of the interview, too - mostly b/c Cramer explains in a nutshell how they were duped and Stewart indicts the irresponsibility of Americans in retort.

My thoughts if you're curious.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe they were duped. Many knew what was going on but didn't want to spoil the party while it lasted. I knew what was going on, and I work out of my basement far from Wall Street. Wall Street is in many ways like a card shark, welcoming anyone of the masses into their game. But you better know what you're doing, which 95% don't. How many people do you know that got rich in the last 10 years with stocks? Not many.

Simon said...

I don't get it. I don't like CNBC, and I don't care much about Jim Cramer. Jon Stewart's ignorance or lack of "cheer leading" doesn't absolve him of guilt.

Anonymous said...

I don't get it either. Jim Cramer's Fast Money is to finance what Jon Stewart is to political discussion -- both irrelevant tripe. But at least Cramer deals with facts and figures. Stewart just misquotes people and makes funny faces.

I'm Not POTUS said...

I don't think most people realize what this interview was for the collective public conscience.

This was quite literally the "king has no clothes" moment for mass media.

Go back and read that fairy tale and convince me otherwise. Sure a lot of people have know the naked truth but there comes a time when the public at large gets clued in on the delusion. And this is one of those times.

The problem with people who know the truth is that they were expecting to see the wizard of Oz revealed behind the curtain. But reality is more subtle than that.

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