I know the buzz is loud regarding the interview between The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and CNBC’s Jim Cramer that aired last week.  I’m sure many are thinking to themselves or even saying out loud, “Finally!”  Maybe it’s because the whole financial crisis is so overwhelming and changes so fast, it becomes difficult to keep it in perspective.  All the stimulus packages - the ones that passed, the ones that didn’t - combined with the bailouts of major companies, some that have criminals at the mast and others that are so close to being criminals, it’s just a matter of dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s.   Million dollar bonuses, billion dollar losses - ugh!  It’s to the point many of us are steering clear of conversing about these topics because we

Jon Stewart

don’t know how old our knowledge is.  Even news that broke an hour ago has a short shelf life.  So when questions are asked and an interviewee begins sweating, it gives us all pause.  We settle in to see where the blood and dust settles.  This time, the one in the hot seat found himself stumbling over his past conversations, predictions and arrogant approach to all things financial. 

Jon Stewart was relentless and determined to bring Cramer down a notch or two.  He demanded to know exactly who holds him accountable, who at CNBC determines the legalities of many across the board statements regarding Bear Sterns and AIG; and Stewart finally says what the rest of us are feeling:

“And they burned the X@# house down with our money and walked away rich as hell and you guys knew that was going on.”

Cramer sees this is an opportunity to plop himself on some pedestal and declare he has a wall of shame and he keeps banana cream pies expressly to throw into CEOs faces.  He says the media is often lied to, and then says they unknowingly report the lies.  That one still has me wondering what planet he lives on. 

He defends his decision to go to bat for Bear Sterns, only to see it crash just one day later.  He said he was as surprised as anyone.  Keep in mind, he’s a financial heavyweight for CNBC and up until recently, a well-respected financial journalist.  He mentions several times of the trust he had in all of these folks who’ve since been exposed as thieves and that he was as disheartened as the rest of the country, even though he refers to most of them as his “friends”.

Honestly, it was painful to watch….yet I’ve watched it a few times this weekend. I especially got a kick out of Stewart’s analogy of Cramer’s insistence of a market for fast money.  Stewart retorts with, “Yeah, but there’s a market for cocaine and hookers too.” 

There’s still talk of charges being filed on many of these company heavyweights who have benfited from bail out money, although it doesn’t appear likely, at least in the immediate future.  And from the headlines this weekend, it may never come full circle with criminal or civil charges since AIG has announced, yet again, even more bonuses for the higher-ups.

If you’d like to see the edited video, click here.  If, however, you want the full effect, complete with expletives, click here.

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I’ve only been catching the highlights of the hearings this week from the “Big 3″ automakers, mostly because I can’t seem to get my mind around the justifications. I understand the importance of remaining in business. Regardless of the layoffs they’ve already incorporated, closing their doors only ensures those remaining would be unemployed. But what I can’t understand is how to plan to remain in business six months from now. The new unemployment numbers come out later today and with last month’s numbers above 6% coupled with words like, “frightful”, “skyrocketed” and other adjectives used to tease us from those who’ve already seen these numbers, I’m doubtful any of us will be shopping for new cars. In fact, my own personal list of priorities go something like this:

· Keeping myself with a roof and four walls

· Ensuring Christmas happies for my family

· Keeping groceries in the cabinets and diet Coke in the fridge

· Keeping the utilities going

I’m sure my priorities are no different than any other Americans’ own lists. If you’ll notice, there’s no mention of any contributions via the purchase of a new car to any of these troubled auto manufacturers. Again, I tend to believe that’s applicable to other Americans too. My question is, even if we bail these companies out, and we’re currently not buying new cars, what makes Congress and these CEOs believe this is their “cure-all”? If folks aren’t running to their local dealerships now, they certainly won’t be doing so six months from now either. In fact, here are the major headlines this morning:

· Viacom to slash 850 jobs in response to the economic downturn (Yahoo News)

· Employers shedding jobs as recession deepens (Drudge Report)

· Employers cut 533k jobs in November, most in 34 years (Associated Press)

I’m just incredulous this is even being entertained. In fact, I’m amazed it’s even a priority at all. Even with their claims of keeping employees with jobs, it simply doesn’t ring true. And for them to threaten us with bankruptcy is a joke. It’s as though they’re saying, “Well, if you don’t help us, we’ll just file bankruptcy” and deliver this statement with an undercurrent of “do it or else”.

My favorite late night jab, courtesy of Jon Stewart, asks if these executives were schooled in how negotiations work. He said (and I’m paraphrasing) if they didn’t receive the 25 billion last month, what made them think they could come back this month and request 34 billion and were they under the impression Congress declined their earlier request because it was too low a number? I think many of us are wondering that very thing.

So as the vast majority of Americans are preparing to head off to their jobs and have redefined a “productive day at the office” as the absence of a pink slip, the head honchos of the automakers prepare to face Congress yet again so they can resume their martyred presences with declarations of “I carpooled here and we split the costs about fifty-fifty”. Welcome to the real world, gentlemen. Carpooling has been an acceptable cost-cutting measure for years.