Jon Stewart destroys Mad Money's Jim Cramer

[explodo]

Personally, I'm skipping the wedding and kids. Can't afford 'em anyway.

I am also in this boat.

[bjorn_skurj]

Does the culture drive the economy or does the economy drive the culture? College! Wedding! Mortgage! Kids!

I have completed step one of this, but am well into step three of "birth, school, work, death."

[Moss]

I'm sure glad I put a bunch of money into a 529 plan for the kids college. It is now worth half as much as when I started. It needs to recover in the next 4 years. I don't even want to think about weddings.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Agree here. Several years ago I remember how the lack of personal savings amongst Americans was a huge concern of economists. Now, savings are on the rise and the economy is on the decline.

 

But that's faulty logic. Investing, not personal savings, got us where we are. Investing and debt. If we had saved instead of assuming debt, we would have been able to afford whatever got us into debt in the first place. If we had saved in CDs and savings accounts in addition to investing in 401k (which most people treated like high-interest savings accounts for retirement) a lot of people would have lost less (assuming their savings came out of a percentage of what they would have stocked in their 401ks) and still have some money in the bank.

 

The rising trend of savings is not causing our bad economy; savings is on the rise because people do not trust investing anymore, and very much expect to lose their jobs because the economy is crap.

 

An adult - with the means - without a savings account is a lot like a car buff who spent his cash on hydraulics instead of brakes.

[Good Old Neon]

But that's faulty logic. Investing, not personal savings, got us where we are. Investing and debt. If we had saved instead of assuming debt, we would have been able to afford whatever got us into debt in the first place. If we had saved in CDs and savings accounts in addition to investing in 401k (which most people treated like high-interest savings accounts for retirement) a lot of people would have lost less (assuming their savings came out of a percentage of what they would have stocked in their 401ks) and still have some money in the bank.

 

The rising trend of savings is not causing our bad economy; savings is on the rise because people do not trust investing anymore, and very much expect to lose their jobs because the economy is crap.

 

An adult - with the means - without a savings account is a lot like a car buff who spent his cash on hydraulics instead of brakes.

 

excerpted from Investment News:

 

A sharp decline in consumer spending. Another factor in deflation and depression is a significant reduction in consumer spending, which in the United States accounts for nearly 70% of gross domestic product.

 

In late 2006, we forecasted the implosion of consumer spending when shares of J.C. Penney Co. Inc. of Plano, Texas

[Gobias Industries]

Ronald Sadoff is the founder and an investment adviser at Sadoff Investment Management LLC in Milwaukee.

 

Link - http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...TMENTSTRATEGIES

 

Sense some bias? Not saying he's wrong, but you have to see where the guy is writing from. He is an investor, he is writing for an investment magazine. Given that, perhaps, saving is the best way to go, do you think he would be thrilled to break that news to his fellow investors? Of course not, he's an investor. All he does is invest. I'm not lambasting your use of the article or itself, but there is some major inherent bias going on in that thing, and so it has to be considered carefully.

 

Granted, everyone saving isn't necessarily what should be happening to "smoothly" exit a recession (spending, yes, will do it), but I think the rate at which everyone was spending before the recession was excessive (and perhaps now with some saving it's just OK). Will it make the recession worse? Most likely, but considering the debt everyone has pretty much it might have to happen.

[LouieB]

I finally got around to watching this after hearing it refered to on the regular (??) news shows. Cramer is just an entertainer, same as Stewart, Rush Limbaugh and just about everyone else who has a show on any media that is selling ads and trying to get someone to watch/listen/read.....All Cramer's shouting and supposed expertise is nothing but a show.

 

LouieB

[John Smith]

I think a lot of people are under the impression that people like Cramer already did the research they should have done themselves.

 

True, but even with wel educated people, like Doctors, I'll always get a second opinion.

[Guest Speed Racer]

The irony is that "spending less, saving more" is good for the individual but horrible for the economy, especially when everyone is doing it.

 

Exactly. And shopping is great, except when somebody gets trampled by 40,000 asshats stampeding at Wal-Mart.

 

If more people had been budgeting - saving/investing/spending - within their means for the past twenty years (or more than that, even?), saving would not be harmful right now. What we're seeing now is a binge/purge cycle - we're essentially starving our spending and hoarding savings right now trying to build up the 10-12 months' living expenses austrya was referring to. This is panic, this is not budgeting.

 

While I don't disagree that the mass-movement toward saving is harming the economy right now, I still disagree the cause/effect line of thought in uncool2pillow's post.

[Moss]

That's why I didn't open a 529 for my daughter. One of my co-workers called me a procrastinator. I just knew that it was all gonna blow up. And I'm just a blonde, not some MBA. I think it was the fact that the bumpkins that moved in across the street were able to qualify for an inflated mortage on a house that is way smaller than mine. This was a couple of years ago. So they couldn't make the payment, the house forclosed. I mowed the yard all summer since I had to look at the mess. Some young guy moved in for probably half of what that inflated mortgate was just a few weeks ago.

 

You couldn't have tipped me off? Saved me a bundle? If nothing else I can let it ride and take some classes myself or give it to grandkids or something.

[EL the Famous]

when are your kids going to college? you kind of have to look at that 529 in the long-term versus what it's doing today.

[Moss]

when are your kids going to college? you kind of have to look at that 529 in the long-term versus what it's doing today.

 

I still got 4 years before the oldest is ready so I got my fingers crossed. We were a little late getting it started so it did not have a ton in it anyways. The youngest will be going in 7 years so maybe we will save it for her.

[Sparky speaks]

Interesting take on Stewart....

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/martens03162009.html

[dondoboy]

NBC fires back at Jon Stewart

[cryptique]

Whatever, peacock.

[dondoboy]

Whatever, peacock.

You know Stewart is gonna skewer him. Why bait a guy who's so pissed and so good at tearing you down?

[uncool2pillow]

From today's Wall Street Journal. Link might not work unless you're a subscriber. Let me know. It's a good defense of Stewart's POV.

 

Meanwhile, NBC Exec Jeffrey Zucker defends CNBC against Stewart. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see one specific refutation of what Stewart has said.