For those of you who have not seen the uncut version of the Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer feud, it's enlightening. My only contention with Stewart is his support of the "loser" homeowners who got themselves into this pickle. I agree that most are not losers, as Rick Santelli if CNBC claimed, but hard working Americans who got caught up in the scam of the century. They're victims. Still, plenty of people submitted fraudulent loan applications. Some lied about their incomes. Others went so far as to lie about having a job. Of course, in the good old days, a person couldn't get away with that. The financial institutions actually checked up on you, contacting your employer and requiring that you provide a W2 statement. Still, it doesn't take a PhD in finance to know that if you make $50k/year, you cannot afford a half a million dollar house. Even so, Stewart is 99.9 percent right here. It's not really about Cramer. He's just representative of the shoddy reporting and corruption that's infiltrated the media. And where was said media, namely the self-touted number one financial network? Where was the guardian-of-the-democracy press? Nowhere to be found. I think that's due in part to the fact that they were benefiting from the bull market created by the housing bubble. Shoots folks. We've been calling it a bubble for years and everyone knew it had to burst. Had to. Because people making $50/year can't afford half million dollar houses and they were snapping them up like chachkis at a garage sale. But nobody dug into it all while it was happening. And if they had, I don't think most of today's journalists would have understood the intricacies of the markets, nor the impacts of various regulations or deregulation to have sorted it all out. But some of those guys at CNBC understood and did nothing about it, reported nothing, until after it all came crumbling down.
As an aside, I heard yesterday that AIG execs are getting bonuses. What say we start flooding our elected representatives with emails demanding our money back?
I've been called into work today, which is shaping up to be the sunniest, most beautiful we've had in a month. So much for my plans to start a modest tan line. But I could use the kala (that's Hawaiian for money) since I will not be receive a bonus from Uncle Sam, so I'll drag my okole in and pour for the thirsty masses.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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