very simple

I know that Jon Stewart constantly repeats the refrain that he’s a fake newsperson, and that he shouldn’t be taken seriously, but I think that he’s the only one working in journalism today that’s willing to ask these questions. Going all the way back to Thomas Nast’s cartoons (or, quite frankly, the fool in King Lear), it’s often the “clown”, the comedian, the joker who is the only one who is willing to speak truth to power. It’s couched in humor, but one has to wonder why Stewart is the only one who is willing to dig deep on these issues, while the “real” journalists do nothing more than serve as mouthpieces for the industries/administrations that they cover. Oh, and I’d be surprised if the SEC didn’t begin to investigate Cramer for market manipulation based on those clips that were dug up where Cramer admits that he’s pumping stocks.

Full, uncensored interview clips of Part 1 (and please enjoy the schadenfreude of these clips being sponsored by Bank of America). Part 2 and Part 3 can be viewed at the Daily Show’s website (had problems with embedding).

well, Circuit City is officially dead. I think I’d be more upset about losing one of the major computer outlets in my neighborhood if they weren’t complete jerks every time I walked into one of their stores. And lest you think those two links contradict each other, please note that, in both cases, the salespeople were not interested in actually serving me, the customer, be it by answering my questions or by leaving me alone when I specifically point out that I’m just browsing.

The only thing that actually bothers me is that they literally just opened up a store in the old tower records location near lincoln center less than one year ago. Here’s hoping the space can find another (decent) tenant soon.

You might think that I’m all up on what’s going on with the economy. I mean, I work in corporate finance and everything. But the massiveness of what’s been going on has utterly confounded just about everyone I know. And no one knows what the hell a credit-default swap is. All in all, I’ve found that the guys over at NPR have really gone out of their way to make the entire thing understandable. Last week, they put together the third in their ongoing series of This American Life episodes on this crisis, bad bank. This is a follow up from the first episode, giant pool of money, and their first follow up, another frightening show about the economy. You can download the current episode for free, and the archived shows cost 95 cents to download, which is totally worth it.

In addition, the guys who put together these shows have a podcast that airs three days a week and a companion blog, planet money.

If you want a clearer understanding of what’s going on, I highly recommend all of these. Heck, the podcast guys got an interview with Geithner last week that’s been cited all over the interweb.