The media's involvement in the economy's failure is bigger than Jim Cramer.

[Joanne98]

Cramer's easy to pick on because he's a bi-polar superstar but it can't stop with him. The financial media is at best a JOKE and at worse a criminal enterprise HELPING the thieves loot America.

For example: It's obvious that there was a conspiracy between Countywide, the homebuilders and Wall Street. They were working together. But now the ex-CEO of Countrywide is making money buying bad debt. This is a story of financial Shock Doctrine. They make money on chaos and destruction. The market goes up, they make money, the market blows up they make bailout money, the market goes down they make shorty money, the market re-organizes they make junk bond money, the market goes back up and it starts all over again. This isn't capitalism, it's a CON GAME! It's organized crime and they should have RICO used on them. When are they going to JAIL?

The media doesn't report the fundamentals. The media exists to serve it's sponsors. the media's job is NOT to inform but to make damn sure the public NEVER figures out the game. The media is the ENEMY.

What they've done with the market is the same thing they did with Iraq and "weapons of mass destruction". Bush and Cheney set the tone early with the CA energy crisis. They sent a message that business could do anything they fucking wanted as long as they were in the WH! The last eights years have been nothing but a crime wave and the media was in on it all along. Aside from a few stories by the print media NOTHING was uncovered. And they almost got away with it. If it wasn't for AIG writing TOO many CDS's we would have never known a thing about market schemes..

On a longer time line you see that the wiping out of the boomer's was planned a long time ago. First they took away the pensions and replaced them with 401k's. The "ownership society" was born. Then they got the small investors to support lowering the wages of the workers. Divide and conquer.."You're one of us now". Then they replaced wages with a FAKE "wealth" housing bubble. People don't care if they are getting paid less when their houses are growing in value which is what happened after the 2001 recession which the "recovery" was financed by re-financing homes. Which led to the BAD mortgages. This FAKE real estate bubble was actually started in the 70's about the same time "globalization" started in earnest. The whole thing has been PLANNED out from the beginning. They turned us into "owners" and then they wipe out the wealth. They're stealing what's left of the pension funds. They conned people into the phony "wealth creation schemes" they they steal the nest eggs. They fucked everybody. But you know this couldn't have happened if we would have stuck together. Resisting the SELFISH urge of fake individualism and competition. Winner and losers. Looks like we ALL lose now.

NOW millions of people have been wiped out. Their homes, their jobs, their 401k's EVERYTHING. And NOW their coming after their social security and medicare. It's the GREAT LOOTING of an entire generation. Is it all just an accident. I don't think so.

Senator Shelby was just on CNBC. He said "Let the market decide". But what if the market is a gigantic PONZI SCHEME? That's the question. We are suppose to let a CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION DECIDE? This GAME is OVER!

Jon Stewart said we have to get back to working for a living. I totally agree. BUT Jon Stewart HAS A JOB. It didn't get shipped to China.

We've been hollowed out. I think it's because of the precious globalization project. I follow Thomas PM Barnett...
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/

As much as I hate his guts, I have to admit he's the only one telling us the truth about "the project". The Washington consensus. I suggest people read his books. "The core and the gap". It won't stop until every single country is on the program. Market based economy and the rule of law. They HAD to ship all our jobs overseas to develop the third world. They HAD to change to a phony "wealth" system to pacify Americans while they got it done. A bait and switch game.

We are NOT going through this without talking about what's REALLY happened. They going to try to sabotage reality again. The MEDIA is the mouthpiece of deception. We need media reform NOW!

We defeated the Republicans but BIG BUSINESS has replaced them as an opposition party. Which is why Obama spoke to the BR yesterday. We have to get health care though and that's means it's us against the insurance companies. This is WAR! Take off the gloves and fire on them and the media who's going to carry their water. Don't let the media con us again. Stay on them.

Stay on globalization. It's the key. It's BAD for everybody even the people in the third world. The widening of the gap between the rich and the poor is happening in every country on earth. We need local economies owned by small business. NO SHAREHOLDERS. They centralized the economy giving the ownership of production and business to corporations and banks. They exchanged REAL ownership with FAKE ownership in stocks. Owning a piece of a public company doesn't make you an owner! OWNING the company does. This was another bait and switch. We're nothing but a corporate slave plantation now. We don't own a fucking thing but DEBT!

[burythehatchet]

1. Let me explain why it will not change: Enablers

You will find plenty of them here on DU. The enablers are the vile and putrid agents of the system. They do so unwittingly. They will jump down your throat and scream CONSPIRACY THEORY when you identify the real source of power and manipulation. They will come after you with pitchforks when you take issue with a Dem president. They will lecture you about what a loser you are because you just couldn't hack in our system. They are the real problem because they play their role without having a clue as to what they do.

[Joanne98]

2. Some people don't have a clue. You can't support the workers in your country

when you're giving their jobs to someone else. It's a glaring inconsistancy. But it's just something we will have to grind though. It's pretty clear that if you're the left the last people you would be agreeing with is the US Chamber. The "culture wars" are a trap. Stay focused on the MONEY! What I'm the most worried about now is another wave of hostile takeovers like we had in the 80's. If that happens there will be no little owners left. This was the plan all along. The biggest enemy small and medium sized business ever had was the multi-national corporation.

[r0nnyb]

8. "Arbitraging Labor" is the name of the game

It is common knowledge that one of the the main purposes for globalization (as it applies to the USA) is simply to "arbitrage labor". John Rutledge (former Reagan economist) let it out a few years ago on CNBC. People in Rutledge's business travel the globe brokering deals with other governments & corporations for the multi-nationals. Arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets per wikipedia. Let's say that you have a $20.00/hr labor market in America & a $0.20/hr labor market in China. There is a hell of a spread there for a labor arbitrageur to sink his teeth into. Out of that $19.80 spread you have to deduct: building costs (factory), shipping costs, bribing of local officials costs, Central Government's piece of the pie costs, lobbying D.C. costs & of course the arbitrageurs fees. Remember to multiply these numbers by several billion because we are talking about billions of man/hours being shifted from here to there. Forcing our people to compete with $0.20/hour labor is of course bringing down our wages as a whole. All this is well understood in D.C. Nobody is looking out for the working class in this country. Why? Both Dems & Reps need those campaign dollars & let's face it. It is really hard to seriously ignore the wishes of the people who give us big money. Until this changes, we're doomed. For a lot of folks, globalization is the best thing since slave labor.

[Joanne98]

9. Thanks. I never heard of that.

[burythehatchet]

12. ...with the logical end being an equalization of living standards

and that, essentially, might be a fairly harsh adjustment.

[Waiting For Everyman]

36. You don't build an economy in one country by draining another's.

You build it the same way it was built in the first country. This "equalizing living standards" is another myth, and another rationalization to make it palatable to some voters, or to make it seem "inevitable".

[sendero]

37. Rationalization or not..

...that is exactly what is happening, Americans' living standards going down, China's going up.

[Roland99]

26. Welcome to DU, r0nnyb. I haven't seen arbitrage labor mentioned up here much

and I'm guilty of that myself.

Thanks for bringing it up!

[HughBeaumont]

25. Don't I know?

You'll find more than a handful of laissez-fail free-trader stooges mostly in my Red X Toilet. Amazing that supposed democrats buy into a system designed against their best interests and call you a xenophobe if you don't go along with it.

[Loge23]

3. And here is a perfect example:

In today's NYT, media critic Alessandra Stanley basically defends Cramer.
I just sent an email to Ms. Stanley asking her why we have to rely on "comedians" for objective news analysis while so-called legitimate media critics ignore the slanted MSM coverage.
I invite everybody to do the same.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/arts/television/14watc.html?_r=1&hp

[Joanne98]

10. The NYT is a big believer in globalization. It's why their always demonizing

any leader of a country who tries to close themselves off. When they cheerleaded the war in Iraq they knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted Iraq "open for business". We don't have a free press because it's ALL owned by corporations. I love KO and Maddow but what I really want is for them to be the OWNERS of their shows. Not just the employees of GE!

[nilram]

22. Though I agree with your point about news analysis

I read that article before your comment and I'm re-reading it now, and I don't see how she defends Cramer's point of view. If anything, she basically says that Stewart had the upper hand on the facts. She seems to be looking at it from media criticism and media business analysis viewpoints, and saying that, given that Cramer's going to continue to have a show, the attention is good for him, his ratings, and therefore (very likely) his pay.

Stanley says, "Part of his frustration may stem from the fact that while Mr. Stewart clearly won the debate, Mr. Cramer and CNBC stood to profit from the encounter. In today’s television news market, the cable network and its stars are like the financiers they cover — media short-sellers trading shamelessly on publicity, good or bad, so long as it drives up ratings."

[nichomachus]

4. I hate to keep saying this, but this was all predicted

Greg Palast explained exactly how it was going to go down in "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." He was largely ignored.

Back in the mid-'90s, Charles Reich gave the early warning in "Opposing the System," which died on the vine because we were all going to be Internet billionaires by next week and no one wanted to hear how rotten the system was.

The warnings have been out there. No one paid any attention.

And, yes, it was sped along by the people -- whether paid or volunteer -- who wait in the wings of the various blogs and come out shrieking "Conspiracy Theory," "Tinfoil Hat," and "Grassy Knoll" any time anyone starts to come too close to the truth.

[Joanne98]

11. Oh yeah the dot.com bubble. When people who got their jobs shipped to China

went back to school to be part of the "information age". Then got their jobs shipped off to India. They won't let anybody win no matter what they do. I can't wait to hear what the NEW economy is going to be named. The SUCKER economy is more like it.

[peacetalksforall]

14. True about Palast and true about your last statement.

"And, yes, it was sped along by the people -- whether paid or volunteer -- who wait in the wings of the various blogs and come out shrieking "Conspiracy Theory," "Tinfoil Hat," and "Grassy Knoll" any time anyone starts to come too close to the truth."

We can't even have a forum to voice our opinions. We have to be manipulated everywhere.

I always wonder how much money they are making when I recognize who is attacking.

[Ron Green]

5. The Market does what it does, but the Church has not kept it in balance.

Of the 3 institutions of human society (Church, State, and Market), only the Market is doing what it's supposed to: appealing to our fears, keeping people off-balance, letting the clever exploit the weak. The Church, especially the Church on TV, instead of doing what it's supposed to do (helping the poor, teaching tolerance and forgiveness, supporting a spiritual community) is acting like the Market, selling fear and division. The State, which ought to negotiate a balance between these two poles, has been so bought up by the Market that we have lost our idea of where "the center" is.

This plays out on TV in the ridiculous cable financial shows that, as you point out, make sure viewers never understand the game. As long as the media are in private, for-profit hands, this will always be the message we get.

[Joanne98]

13. The market corrupted everything. Even the church. Just like the media

who's job it is to deceive. The preachers on tv have taken Jesus and thrown him under the bus. They're the anti-preachers. I can't believe Christians aren't aware of this. Capitalism and Christ just don't mix. They had to destroy it. Get the poor to enslave themselves and their families. It's evil. Why can't they see that? I don't know it's pretty obvious to me. I think they're getting distracted with the bells and whistles just like the rest of us.

[Enthusiast]

28. You said it. Distracted.

When the Glenn Beck types fuel the fears of their listeners with "Obama is a stealth Muslim, hater of America, bent on destroying the country." people get confused and distracted.

What can we do about the media? The discussion should be around solutions we can find in dealing with an enemy media.

[tabatha]

6. Excellent.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Joining that tier of predators, usurers, thiefs, cheats, liars - the motivation is

a combination of arrogance and greed with an added assumption that they are teflon coated and know it all. They made a choice to join the rich and didn't give a darn about those whose job was given to India, whose factory was moved to El Salvador, those who blieved their lender or lost on tiny print, or those who experienced illness which now means medical ruin if uninsured.

There are two kinds of people in this country. We are self-invaded and suffering from money dominated terrorists - and some are money dominated terrorists who thrill to the game.

This divide is worse than any other divide the contry has gone through. On top of that we have all the deals signed and delivered to give our country away to foreign entities - our technological superiority - including nuclear.

We have entered or are about to enter a self made era of serf/slave <> owner.

People have played and are still playing with our lives. Despicable people.

[Joanne98]

15. We're lower than serfs. At least they owned territory. Even it they didn't

owne it with titles they owned it with homeland and ancestors. We've been reduced to shoppers in a mall. We're vistors in our own country. Disposable citizens just like the crap we buy. We may have been born here but we're nothing. "The business of America is business" we're temp citizens.

This is what is so insideous about globalization. They are turning everybody into the homeless. Now we're all suppose to travel for work. People love where they grew up. They love the smells and sounds. They love the trees they knew as children or the schools they went to. When they steal our lands they steal our memories. Our souls.

It's horrible and quite frankly the most evil thing I have ever seen or imagined. I hope I live long enough to see them get caught.

[xiamiam]

16. excellent..as always..nt

[Joanne98]

17. When people say that globalization isn't a conspiracy they don't know

how long the big business bastards have been working on it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization#History

This wikipedia piece is slanted toward PRO but you get the picture.

In the modern era we're on the third wave. The first two got stopped by world wars and Russia. Now we're in the third. According to Thomas Barnett the only thing that can stop the project is a war with China.

It's definitely a conspiracy. Expect "how to save the project" to be on the top of the agenda at the G-20 meeting.

I hope they get protested to death!

[file83]

19. What's funny is if you call it a "business plan" people will listen...

...but if you call it a conspiracy, they shy away.

Language is powerful that way.

[Joanne98]

20. Yeah but have you noticed how the conspiracy theorists end up being RIGHT!

They have a pretty good record. Today a conspiracy theory, tommorrow a fact.

I'm in the CT camp. I don't care if I get ridiculed as long as I'm right in the end. It's part of the process.

As far as "business plans" go, I think the Yes Men got them on that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DbaMAnKu4

[leftofthedial]

18. he's a scapegoat

but weirdly, he's a volunteer scapegoat.

[screembloodymurder]

21. Or a sacrificial lamb

Cramer, though a little wild, is a populist. I honestly think he did more to warn people than anyone on CNBC.

[barb162]

23. K&R , What we have now is jungle capitalism

with corporations forcing everyone down in this country and other high wage countries to slave wages. Governments across the idustrialized globe go along with the corporations at the expense of the people. The situation hasn't been looking good to me for a long time.

[upi402]

24. corporatism = fascism - Mussolini

The OP is right and I've been very discouraged since the times of Raygun -and the media on bended knee before him.

[Enthusiast]

29. Me too, upi402

My factory was closed as a result of the merger and acquisition fever under Reagan. And that was only the start. It has been all down hill from there.

[Kolesar]

27. Business Week magazine was reporting this story diligently for years

Or so their reporter said last night on PBS' News Hour with Jim Lehrer. www.pbs.org

[Christa]

30. K % HIGHLY recommended - NT

[SlingBlade]

31. Joanne98 Nailed it, K & R

[dgibby]

32. If you haven't done so yet, please send this to

Jon Stewart, Keith and Rachel. Maybe one of them will address it.

While I've never sent anything to Jon, I've had really good luck sending stuff to Keith and Rachel. They almost always address the topics/articles I send them. They never respond, so I don't know if they use what I send or if it's just a coincidence, but the stuff gets addressed, and that's what's important.

This is an excellent synopsis of the problem, and deserves a nationwide audience. Thank you.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

33. Brilliant! : ....

Great analysis and practically every other sentence is a quotable left hook!!

Financial Shock Doctrine.
This isn't capitalism, it's a con game.
The media exists to serve its sponsors.
The media's job is not to inform but to make damn sure the public never figures out the game!

Resisting the SELFISH urge of fake individualism and competition. Winner and losers. <---Wow, that's a powerful insight. Rugged individualism, competition and having "real balls" is such an American meme. Part of the change necessary? We need to learn HOW to stick together, to practice it, to nurture cohesiveness and cooperation, to model compassionate behaviors--- We Need to Grow a set of OVARIES!!

Thanks Joanne98 for a post worth bookmarking

[mod mom]

34. Cramer & MSN-BS don't get the public's wrath. Watch is coverage on his show:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cramer_dodges_any_mention_of_Jon_0313.html

:mad:

[Waiting For Everyman]

35. ABSOLUTELY AND TOTALLY RIGHT!

This was DEFINITELY planned from the time when 401(k)s started. Conventional pensions disappeared, and that was the supposedly great substitute. That put WAY TOO MUCH ADDITIONAL MONEY (with no oversight) into the stock market, which of course, pumped the "values" way UP. It was the means to inflate the bubble(s). That was accomplished with lots of changes to the LAW, which the Repubs and financial media are responsible for.

This loss to us was done to us with our own money, and now we're expected to pay these INFLATED DEBTS back, yet again. How many times do we pay the same "debt" which started out as "savings"? And people wonder why we don't save. If we had saved more, we would've LOST more.

Thank God that Medicare wasn't "privatized" the same way and put into the market too, or this crash would've been twice as bad. And the Repubs are STILL trying on that! I can't believe the nerve!

Yes, the financial media is directly guilty of enabling this. They disinformed the public to tilt the playing field and rig the game. That's not competition, that's a scam. It's very clear by now that it was premedited too, and not some "rogues" acting individually.

RICO should be used on this, definitely. And the sooner the better.

This is best post I've read on this YET! :applause: You nailed it! I agree with every point you made. It is most definitely the fleecing of an entire generation (the biggest and richest of all time) for decades and worldwide. This should set off the biggest series of trials ever, too. Lots of laws (even those still left in place) were broken, and massive damage done - should that go unpunished? If it does go unpunished then what is the law, then? Why should anyone respect it at all after this? When crime=the law, then every person has to protect himself - FROM it.

It's too late to "rec" this too, but I wish I could!

:kick: