Jon Stewart veered from use usual "fake" journalism this week when he interviewed Jim Cramer who has own financial advise show on CNBC. Stewart exposed Cramer to be more Kramer-esque from Seinfeld fame. Cramer kept referring to the Wall Street "shenanigans" during the interview, and Stewart kept providing evidence of these shenanigans by playing videos of Cramer up to no good.
To quote one of the comments on the Comedy Central web site: it's ridiculous it takes you (Jon Stewart) to hold these people accountable.
Now let's contrast this with a speech by Larry Summers, Obama's top economic advisor. Summers talks a lot about breaking the cycle of greed and excess of fear. The following are some of the themes that Summers discusses without a lot of detail:
"Our single most important priority it bringing about economic recovery" - But so far one of the most visible methods for doing this is through the economic stimulus bill which has a lot to be desired and is fraught with a "me-first" mentality as policy makers flock to Washington to make their pitch for a piece of the pie.
"Not driven by financial excess" - But we have the Madoffs of the world having profited on behalf of their families at the expense of the masses. Yes, he's going to jail for a long time, but there is still that feeling that we have been hoodwinked.
"Raise incomes for middle class families" - But how is this going to help a middle class that at this point feels that they will have to keep working until the very end? I think that most of us would gladly trade the ability to earn more moving forward for the ability to see more of those who have gained financially through dubious means to pay for their actions.
"Our problems were not made in a day, a month or a year" - But what has been done to make sure that this will not happen again? Will there be penalties for the Jim Cramers of the world for not reforming?
At this point, Jon Stewart has done a better job articulating the feelings of most Americans than anyone else in the public sphere to date. This is really a sorry state of affairs.
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