I've never watched CNBC, so I don't really have a sense of how fair Stewart's criticism is, though his central premise makes sense to me: that if CNBC shows were going to have interviews with CEOs, giving them a platform to spew lies, then they had a duty to either a) investigate and do some in-depth reporting or b) clearly present themselves as nothing but entertainment.
Stewart makes a couple other points worth making that don't have much of anything to do with CNBC (except to the extent they ought to have been a watchdog on behalf of average investors): 1) that publicly-traded corporations have lately been managed for short term gain, while average joe investors have been investing for the long term (based on the misunderstanding that corporations were managed for the long term) and that mismatch has robbed investors of their savings; and 2) there are two markets, one of hard-earned dollars by ordinary people on an ordinary scale being invested to own a piece of companies and a second that is a big game in which market players use the money of average investors in their betting games. (I could swear I posted my own made-up theory that was similar to #2, but I can't find it.)
The Daily Show has made the whole interview (much longer than what appeared on the show) available on its website, and available for embedding, so here you go:
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Childhood Bible Stories
I have no idea why this came to me today.
Remember this story you learned as a kid? Jacob, the third of the Old Testament Patriarchs, gets flimflammed by Laban when Jacob asks to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel.
“Work for me for 7 years,” says Laban, “then you can marry Rachel.”
Jacob does so, but is somehow hoodwinked by Laban and marries Rachel’s sister Leah instead. Jacob then had to work another 7 years for Laban to get Rachel.
Laban: inventor of the Bait-n-Switch.
Remember this story you learned as a kid? Jacob, the third of the Old Testament Patriarchs, gets flimflammed by Laban when Jacob asks to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel.
“Work for me for 7 years,” says Laban, “then you can marry Rachel.”
Jacob does so, but is somehow hoodwinked by Laban and marries Rachel’s sister Leah instead. Jacob then had to work another 7 years for Laban to get Rachel.
Laban: inventor of the Bait-n-Switch.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Oil down but...
This morning, early, I saw something on one of the blogs/sites that had that as a headline. Did anybody catch it? I've been thinking that the collapse of oil would act as something of a "stimulus" and my quick impression was that the article was going to dispel that idea somewhat.
When I went back to try to find the article, I couldn't.
When I went back to try to find the article, I couldn't.
Update: Stewart excoriates CNBC
Jim Cramer complained that Stewart's take on CNBC last week, in which Stewart said Cramer encouraged people to buy Bear Stearns five days before it collapsed, was in error. Cramer pointed out that in the clip Steward showed, Cramer wasn't encouraging people to buy Bear Stearns stock; he was simply assuring them it was safe to use Bear Stearns for handling one's investments. Steward acknowledges the error, but then goes on to show that Cramer did indeed encourage people to buy Bear's stock not long before the collapse.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Hey
Where did all the blog entries go?
[Update 3/9/09: Nevermind. They're back now. But they were completely missing moments ago.]
[Update 3/9/09: Nevermind. They're back now. But they were completely missing moments ago.]
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