Sunday, March 15, 2009

How financial markets work - Jon Stewart eviscerates Jim Cramer

Following up my previous post on John Stewart's exposé series about the fraudulence and corruption of allegedly serious financial journalism emanating from sources like CNBC ...

... here is Jon Stewart's now-famous interview with Jim Cramer of the CNBC show "Mad Money". (Cramer is not even the worst of the lot at CNBC, but he's the one who agreed--perhaps unwisely--to come on the "Daily Show" to be interviewed.)

This is genuinely illuminating, so I recommend watching the whole thing--but especially Part 2 and Part 3, where Stewart goes into full prosecutorial mode, and offers a lot of acute analysis along with his increasingly visible indignation.

(Yes, as I noted in the earlier post, it's a sad situation when we have to go to comedy shows to get serious and illuminating analysis of the financial markets ... but that's where we are now.)

Jon Stewart Interview With Jim Cramer

--Jeff Weintraub

P.S. For a few afterthoughts: James Fallows assesses "the Stewart/Cramer slaughter" ("It's true: Jon Stewart has become Edward R. Murrow") ... Robert Schlesinger of U.S. News & World Report concludes that "the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer interview from Thursday night was actually worth the hype" ... Jim Cramer explains ruefully that he felt "blindsided by Stewart’s hostile approach" ... and the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz points out that CNBC was far from the only culprit.