Anyone who has ever studied history should have heard of the Dutch tulip craze and crash. It is Econ 101 and basic European/American Invasion History.

Crashes: The Tulip and Bulb Craze


Synopsis: In 1593 tulips were brought from Turkey and introduced to the Dutch. The novelty of the new flower made it widely sought after and therefore fairly pricey.

After a time, the tulips contracted a non-fatal virus known as mosaic, which didn't kill the tulip population but altered them causing "flames" of color to appear upon the petals. The color patterns came in a wide variety, increasing the rarity of an already unique flower.

Thus, tulips, which were already selling at a premium, began to rise in price according to how their virus alterations were valued, or desired. Everyone began to deal in bulbs, essentially speculating on the tulip market, which was believed to have no limits.

It is a very instructive story everyone should know. I do not believe Cramer did not know.

Does he have a personality disorder? The CIA is said to have been grooming plants and the media is supposedly just chock full of them.

It is supposed to be part of some grand plot.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

He schooled Cramer but that's not really all that difficult. What he really did was to school EVERY OTHER REPORTER on TV!! What Stewart did was REAL reporting. Pulling old clips, asking questions that intentionally made Cramer UNCOMFORTABLE. If only the "real" reporters did that of the previous administration and the current one. Thank God for Jon Stewart.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Thanks to Jon Stewart and Alternet.
It was pretty obvious to insiders that these Investment Banks were overleveraged and nobody was willing to sound the call in the MSM. If they had, the recession would have been far easier to overcome.
My pittance sits in a Credit Union, but when I do decide to invest, it will be about fundamentals....something the MSM has clearly forgotten.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It's time to wake up America.

Turn off ABCNNBCBS and Fix News.

infowars.com
whatreallyhappened.com

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Sometimes, my wife would say that he looks like he needs to use the bathroom really bad ! LOL ! Seriously though, anyone roaring like JC is an obvious fraud.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

He's always had his stupid sound effects, and generally sleezy and cheesy persona, but the guy has made millions and millions from the market.

You can name nearly any stock symbol and he will tell you the name of the company, the dividend it pays, and possibly the CEO. He's like the Rain Man that way.

It doesn't stop him from making terrible calls on the record, though.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

for showing some light on the fact that America has been raped again by Wall Street!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I'm quoting myself from a year ago on the alternet website. I said lots of other bad things about banks on Alternet before the meltdown. Somebody go check the archives. I was railing about the banks online as early as 2 years ago. Cramer you putz, can I please take over your job right now?

These days I hoard my scarce supply of rotten eggs for soon-to-be-worthless life insurance policies, still-dropping house prices, and the surviving Senate Republicans that led the original charge off the cliff and still hang together to block the Obama Administration's every move. Then there's the new shooting war in Pakistan, a nuclear power threatened with an incipient nonviolent revolution, and there's global warming. OK, maybe I have better things to do than scream "buy" and "sell" for the investors' pleasure. If Jim Cramer could do it dressed in a barrel?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

What the Daily Show did last night was a rare thing of beauty. They took a much longer interview, which was already pretty bad, and chopped it down - TO CONFORM TO POWER'S OWN DESIGN OF THE MEDIA SYSTEM - in such a way that made Cramer look *so much worse*. Using the tools of commercial breaks, they effectively, early on, robbed Cramer of 'his turn' in responding and making everything look ok and normal. Cramer said two lines, in the aired broadcast, Stewart went to commercial - which I have NEVER seen him do to a guest - and then came back - and now it was Jon's turn again. This is such a fantastic illumination of how the system is designed to work to kill whatever isn't wanted to be heard, I just sat there in awe.

The rest of the video looked like a Clarke and Dawes bit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQsBGxhbYl4 with Cramer outright looking like a criminal throwing himself upon the mercy of the court. He knew very well he was walking a fine line where he was probably going to get fired, if not charged with a crime. I sat there in awe. I knew it wasn't going to be massive change, but I expected CNBC to fire Cramer this morning, to rid itself of one troublesomely long fingernail and protect the rest of the company from the disgrace and danger.

Well, here's the Propaganda model at work. If you had any doubt how it was going to go, here it is. Mainstream Media normalizing and reframing the issue, and now it is likely this is going to blow over - Cramer will probably not even get fired. Take a look at this - Alternet, I'd appreciate it if you started posting comparisons like I'm always doing, even privately to you guys, to show the difference so that we can be armed with this evidence when we go out there talking to our friends and such:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29682375/

It's a total distortion of what we saw last night. I mean, yes, something you can vaguely call a 'fact' might be in there - but they have to use the occasional fact in order to spin it. This is heinous, the CEOs who run our country musing "yeah, someone should be asking these tough questions." WHY ISN'T OBAMA UP THIS MORNING TALKING THIS? We hired the guy because he's the PLAIN-TALKER. TALK TO US, MAN.

But PLEASE launch the video next to the story. It's MSNBC doing what they do, what CNN does. They DON'T link to Youtube, or the Daily Show, which every other fair minded and right thinking person in the free world did today when passing this around - no, they made their own little vid and just normalized it. No problems here. Cramer went on and cut the hype and sat down for a rational chat with Jon, and they had a very normal talk and agreed to work harder together. Back to work everyone! We all have unpaid overtime to do tonight!

I'm sorry if there were any huge typos in this, I'm so mad I can't think straight and I probably shouldn't be writing.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/nbc/
msnbc_producers_asked_not_to_highlight_cramerstewart
_111307.asp

we've all gotta keep the pressure on. The structure is swaying ever so slightly, don't let it regain equilibrium.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert serve as the court jesters of mainstream American media. Nobody else in news media can say the things they say, at least so plainly. You can't write these two off as being "just comedians, not really that different from the pundits, just another part of the media" as I've read in some of the more dismissive comments on this topic. These two guys are carrying on the grand tradition of the fool, the jester, he who gets to call shenanigans on those who control our lives.

Wikipedia article on the jester. Sound familiar?

(Let us not forget the teams of writers backing our beloved pranksters, of course.)

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Just as Tucker Carlson never recovered from his encounter with Stewart back in 2004, last night's takedown will spell the end of Kramer's influence. Stewart tore out Kramer's corrupt soul and put it on display for all the world to see.

Jon Stewart is a courageous American patriot. He schooled a lot of Americans last night to see through the dysfunctional paradigm of the American corporate media.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

that was amazing. John Stewart is my hero!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Jon Stewart, you have an amazing mind. My God, he was squirming like a bug under your shoe! Thanks for your brilliance, wit and dedication in holding people accountable.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

In my mind, Stewart removed the jester cap and became the journalist. The reason Cramer came across looking bad was that he could not defend himself against the tough questions and damning videos. Gotcha journalism? I think not.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Yes, Stewart is able to critique the right wing, the media and even the Democrats, to include Obama. Yet I don't see that criticism here, and honestly AlterNet should cue up for self-evaluation and looking at partisan protectionism. Since the election of Obama, AlterNet has done nothing near the admirable work of Stewart. Why is this? Why have I not seen articles about Obama's war lies (ie. he is planning to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and begin another aggression in Afghanistan)? Why have no articles about his economic plans excluded criticisms for Obama's clearly class alignments--salvaging the economy with lovley words, but the mega rich have been the ones salvaged by this "bailout? Or the most obvious fact that Obama did not discuss the relationship between the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the deficit?

Where is the criticism of this very unimpressive president who could sell toothpaste?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Just a few short years ago, I had predicted over at the New York Times forum, with help from some well-known goldbug financial pundits, that Wall Street will tank and gold will rise significantly. But that sounded so incredulous to those blinded Rethug posters at the NYT forum who believed stocks will rise forever and can retire comfortably at a young age solely by living on their ever so fattening 401ks. And worse still, they had mockingly laughed at my large gold bullion holdings.

While some dems also worshipped the wall street gospel, it's the ill-fated Rethuglicans who made the boisterously strident calls that Wall Street cannot do wrong.

I have a strong feeling many of them are now sleeping in their cars because they have no choice and are also soberly contemplating working until well into their 90s. That is, if they have jobs.

Hey, Rethugs: who's laughing now?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As Jon Stewart said "this isn't about you". Stewart used the opportunity to lay waste to the endless stock touting and shameless promoting that the business news channels have gotten themselves into. Long gone are the days when a business reporter was a reporter first who reported on business on television. This series will be as important to chilling the business press as his tirade on Crossfire was in weakening attack dog commentary passing for serious debate.

For years we have watched as "analysts" dissect the market. Instead, they are shills pretending to do research. It's why all you needed to know about Enron was in the footnotes of their annual reports - but none of the analysts actually read them.

Now if we could only eliminate Larry Kudlow...

Where would be without Colbert and Stewart?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

yesterday (March 13) tried to spin this to look like Stewart was beating up on Cramer, rather than on CNBC. Everytime Cramer dutifully fell on his sword and uttered another mea-culpa, Stewart said You're not the target, the station is. And they ultimately agreed.

Brilliant! And if the NYT felt they had to acknowledge and kill the message, potentially really impactful. One hopes so.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

And perhaps the best of all time. Kronkite, Murrow, Russert, and any other TV journalist you can name, have NEVER been this confrontational towards our economic system, nor openly critical of the very field they operate in. If the MSM operated like Stewart (and Colbert) we would be in such better shape. We need a watchdog, not a lap dog, and Stewart/Colbert are filling that role brilliantly. The posters here ripping on Stewart seem like the types that can find a problem with anything. Recognize a good thing when you see it guys.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

He deserves huge kudos for this.
He totally handed Crammer his ass on a silver platter.

Corporate TV news had deteriorated into a joke. The corporations who own the news do not want real news. It pisses off the powerful and rich in charge. So the news becomes a whore to the corporate owners and become shills for whatever crap they want.

I worked for many years in the TV news biz. The station I worked for went from a bastion of true journalism to a place where the boss literally and publicly made fun of journalism. He ordered us to not do it, made fun of the entire notion.

"Journalism doesn't work," he barked.

Indeed. So we have a nation of idiots as a result.

Crammer should have known better than to go up against the master.

I wrote Jon Stewart a love note on my blog.

Granny's luv note to Jon Go get a chuckle!

Luv,
Granny

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Just one more lonely voice here, but it should bear repeating that Stewart is a paid circus clown, with no "politics" that he can be accused of. Stewart has on his show all manner of right-wing criminals, and cozies up and banters and places himself in comedic subservience to these masters. He utters a few writer-supplied lines every night that point out hypocrisy, but he is a shallow con man, using a few convenient foils in the cable media (CNN, now Cramer - who's next, sham-Wow Man?) for a takedown, while being Shecky Greene to Lynne Cheney, William Kristol, and the merry gang of plutocrats. Why will Stewart never have on a real critic, like Chomsky, Chris Floyd, Ward Churchill, Norman Finkelstein? Because he is an idiot.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I watched and I cheered Jon on for making this hypocrite sweat, it was almost sad. Seriously, if it weren't for people like Jon or Stephen Colbert or Rachel Maddows or Keith Olbermann people would lose faith in journalism, but people like this inspire me to fight against the tide of ignorance that seems to have engulfed this nation. Whats wrong with the US today is a lack of principles and nerve, no courage,just fear of challenging the people in power. I'm getting sick and tired of compromise, as a progressive. We need to spread this level of accountability and strong principles throughout journalism and the government.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]