Friday, January 25, 2008

The A Daily Show - 01/24

Last night on The A Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he had a guest on, Jerri Willis from CNN, speaking about the state of the economy. I know a lot people watch Jon Stewart and even rely on his show for their news, so I need to clear some things up that this guest was either misleading about or was ill-equipped to speak about.

One of the first things that Jon did was have Jerri comment on two video clips, both of which made the people seem like they didn't know what they were talking about. What was missed was...well...everything in the clips was easily explained, but Jerri Willis either chose not to or didn't know anything about what she was talking about.

The first clip was a lady, whom I've seen before but I don't know her name off hand, who's comment was something to the effect of "this is the market that everyone's been dreaming about". While the second guy was quoted as saying, "that was a great moment to cover those shorts and take a shot on the long side", referring to the stock market's 500 point drop early in the trading day the other day.

Now, if you've followed my blog at all, you may know that I'm worried about the economy...very worried. It's almost scary to me. There's a culmination of events that have come, or are coming, together to potentially send our economy seriously out of wack. HOWEVER, both of the comments by these people are perfectly legitmate statements, when taken in context without extrapolating them out to be general comments about the overall economy.

The first lady is a big real estate investment proponent. If you take a second to think about it, this is a great time to be a big real estate investor. Individuals are losing their houses at alarming rates, so now is the perfect time to drive real estate prices further down, and buy at a cheap price. Also, keep in mind I still don't think the individuals should be bailed out...they have a responsibility to know if they can afford a home or not.

The guy's statement was textbook from an investing standpoint. It is a little complicated, but what he was essentially saying is pay back your loans, take the profits from that loan and invest at a cheap price. Who in their right mind wouldn't want to do that? Now, as I said, it's a little complicated to explain, and I'd be glad to do so if any one wants me to, but Jerri Willis completely misinterpreted that gentleman's comments. In my opinion, if you don't understand the market, you have no business making a comment on the gentleman's statement. If you do supposedly understand the stock market, and you're not on board with what the gentleman said, you should really go back and re-learn the stock market.

Again, folks, it's crazy out there. The economy could be in trouble, and I don't have the opinion that this "stimulus package" will help much...though I'll gladly take the money. But do the smart thing...pay off debt with that money. The government isn't running the economy well at all. If the government was a company, they'd be out of business. So if our economy turns out bad, your best bet is to have little to no debt.

I like Jon Stewart...I watch his show all the time...and I do learn things about current events from there. But don't fall into the trap of believing everything on there and take it as gospel. Yesterday's guest and the above explaination are prefect examples how someone that doesn't know exactly what they are talking about can give people a misrepresentation of things.

1 comment:

Rocketstar said...

Hey Mad hoosier, you make a good point, information is always suspect until you check the source and double check the info.

On the "Imagine No Religion" post. I think the point is valid that if religion did not exist, the likelyhood that the terrorists would have killed themselves is miniscule. It was the promise, the 150% certaintity that they had of Allah, heaven, the 70 virgins etc... that allowed and comforted them so they could so easily end thier lives.

You would have a much tougher time getting an Atheist to end thier life in the name of anything than someone who believed in the after life and beleived that they were acting in the name of the creator of the universe.