SO I FINALLY WATCH THE STEWART KRAMER THING...

...on the Daily Show website, and who is the advertiser?

Bank of America: Bank of opportunity.

Amazing...

And, by the way, I DID see it coming: in early '08, I took my "rainy day fund" out of stocks and put it into money markets. How did I see it coming? Basically by reading the Economist and thinking a little. "Hmm...so three quarters of a trillion of our economic activity is from home equity loans...hmm...people are buying houses and not paying off any principal on the loan...hmm...banks are using computer models - which unless used precisely, give you the outcome you want - to create investments that I do not understand...hmm...housing prices are rising at incredible rates in a lot of markets...hmm...here in Chicago they're building tens of thousands of condominiums and homes even though the market for them seems to be stalling."

It really wasn't that much of a surprise, but that's hard to know unless you get good information. And let's face it; that was the real problem. The people trusted to give information were liars, and the people who broadcast the information were ignorant dupes at best (that would be the NYT, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox, NPR and the like), but more likely co-conspirators when it comes to the world of business reporting. Like I said, I read the Economist because I got it free at work. And thank God for that little British Torey magazine.

And of course Jon Stewart is right. But really, isn't it amazing that the first real truth-y look at CNBC and the marketing of Wall Street comes, A) in March of ''09 and B) from a comedian.

Pathetic...simply pathetic.