A Damning Indictment of the Finance Crowd

Say what you will about Jon Stewart, last night's interview with CNBC financial guru and future perp walk demonstrator Jim Cramer was as damning an indictment of the financial system and its media sycophants as I have seen during this crisis. Cramer was shown boasting of behavior which, to my non-legal mind, is criminal, and then explaining it away as if he were doing his listeners a favor.

As Stewart said, how many millions of people have been devastated by advice to take the long view with their retirement investments while their erstwhile advisors played fast and loose with their money in this fashion. Bernie Madoff is in jail for being basically stupid. Why run a ponzi scheme when you can do this stuff with impunity.

If we are going to float the banks, here in Canada or in the U.S., then we have a moral obligation as citizens to control their behavior. Obviously they cannot or will not do so themselves. And we had better start to treat the media with the skepticism if not the derision they so richly deserve. They are not telling us the truth.