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Dude...

Submitted by undersundog on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 12:18

Is everyone else looking at the Drudge header? Rick Santelli, I love it!

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Thanks for pointing this out

Submitted by lagomorph on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 15:44.

Here's the transcript and the video of Rick's rant.  It's about time.  ;-)

The other night I was watching The Daily Show because of course like all Americans, I know that I can trust Jon Stewart to be the premier purveyor of newsworthy commentary.  At first I was satisfied that Stewart mocked Geithner's announcement as snoozeworthy, but then he went a bridge too far when he chastised Wall Street for not tanking after Geithner announced his vague non-plan.  I'm paraphrasing, but it went something along the lines of..."SO, Wall Street, let me get this straight - Washington is going to give you a trillion dollars and you're not HAPPY?".

Either Jon Stewart's intellectually challenged, or his writers are, or both.  The reason Wall Street is not happy isn't because so-called Wall Street corporate bankers don't appreciate receiving additional capital (although even a trillion won't cut it at this point).  The reason Wall Street isn't happy is because Wall Street consists of investors, people like you, me, and - perhaps even Jon Stewart himself (or his broker) - who have absolutely no confidence that our government has any idea in hell what it's doing when it comes to shoring up bad assets and recapitalizing the banks to resume lending.  Of course the average genius in Jon's audience laughs at this joke because so far their only investment has been $150K in Harvard, Columbia or NYU student loans. 

As for everyone who has/had a job, owns/owned a home, and owns/owned stock, well - we're all fiscal conservatives now.

cut him a break. he's got to make everything funny.

Submitted by RisingTide on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 16:38.

or at least find 20 minutes of funny in the news of the day. He knows more about the economy than his jokes would suggest.

10/10 changed everything, and I don't know what fiscal conservatism has to do with anything! ;-P

I'm doing well in my stocks, though my oil position is going to kill me come tax time. AHH! Partnership sucks!

I didn't say "we're all Austrians now"

Submitted by lagomorph on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 17:24.

I said we're all fiscal conservatives - c'mon, admit it.  Once you get used to the term "conservative" you'll get more and more comfortable with it.  Take it from a former liberal.  You can do it - unless you want to walk outside right now giving all your dividends away to The People so that you can support social justice on the streets, I'm thinkin' you're an unrepentant capitalist pig.  Just like Jon Stewart.  :o)

ooh! ooh! can I be an Austrian now!!?!!

Submitted by RisingTide on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 11:15.

seriously, I'm liking von Mises more and more, the longer this goes on... (despise Friedman. wish he had been right though. ZIRP sucks)

If fiscal conservatism means having enough saved up that you don't have to worry about losing your job for short periods of time (a few years), then yeah, I'm a fiscal conservative. AND everyone should be right now!

Umm... I do give a substantial portion of our combined work-output towards social justice on the streets. That's what you get for doing a lot of pro bono legal work, tipping off the SEC about Ponzi scams, tipping off the IRS about tax evasion, helping out with photo analysis to prove that Ashley Todd was a faker, writing for Linux. ;-) [the wonders of knowing a forensic accountant]

I do, however, consider unrepentant capitalist pig to be a compliment, so thanks!

A few years?

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 13:24.

Ha! I've been breaking even, until my wife got her green card. Now I find out I may be a father... I'll never save up enough to be able to be out of work a few years! lol Maybe a few months.

the trick is to live like a pauper

Submitted by RisingTide on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 14:02.

walk to work, eat on less than fifty cents a meal (yummy basmati rice and butter!), and buy no clothing that won't last five years.

I'm saving about half my income, which means that I could live for a year or so, if you count unemployment. ;-)

Are you married?

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 15:40.

Because if so, I want to know how you convinced your significant other. I don't think I could do that with mine. :)

Though I save money on work uniforms since they're provided. Can't quite walk to work, though my wife does. And I don't save half of my income, but we do save all of hers. It's starting to work... slowly but surely...

well, truth be told, my husband convinced me!

Submitted by RisingTide on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 16:05.

and now neither of us has to cook every night! Chili makes a TON of food, for not a lot of money... And you're active-duty, so I know your food is subsidized! ;-) So too does beef stew...

The trick is to move away from a slab of meat at every meal, and towards "starch, now plus something tasty."

Plus, buying fifty pounds of popcorn at a time makes the whole thing cheaper...

Pity about the walking to work thing... tried a bike? not having a car is likely to save you at least $4,000 a year.

Ha! In the military

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 13:29.

Having a car and a phone is nearly essential. Specially for when you're on-call! The commander won't accept that the hospital was without comm for an hour because you took 30 mins to bike to work. :)

I convinced my wife to walk to work though (it's across the block)... so that helps. And food costs aren't too much, but that's because I've got a cast iron stomach and can eat leftovers for days lol.

try for two weeks.

Submitted by RisingTide on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 13:46.

I got a pot of oil, and 20lbs of potatoes. That should be good for ten dinners or so ;-)

seriously, I do eat the same thing for two weeks straight. just so long as I switch afterwards, it hasn't hurt me any.

umm... yeah, i can see how your commander wouldn't want a 30 minute wait time until you could get to work. ;-)

Gotta love the military life!

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 14:13.

Where we might as well implant cell phones into our ears and wheels on our feet :)

that sounds straight out of catch 22

Submitted by RisingTide on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 14:17.

AND back to the future.

weird juxtaposition!

other tricks: reduce monthly expenditures

Submitted by RisingTide on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 16:07.

I don't have cable, don't have a TV (two computers. video games are fun! -- one of the computers functions as a space heater during the winter)

I also leave the heat practically off during the night ( so it got down to 54 degrees inside).

Plus, we rent. less than $700 a month, for not needing to take care of most stuff (okay, so we shovel) is a good bargain.

How big is your apartment?

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 13:30.

Ours is about 900 sq ft for 750 a month... but housing went up about 30% after Katrina, and hasn't really gone down since.

eep! wow. in the burgh... I am paying less per foot

Submitted by RisingTide on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 13:48.

than you are in Mississippi? [feeling vaguely guilty]

1200 ft or so (about the size of a small house).

Then again, it's a sweetheart deal -- our last place was a little cheaper, but for something like 800 sq ft. (and half of that in the basement). And that's all we really need.

To be fair

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 14:12.

I was renting a 950 sq ft apartment for $660; after Katrina, it runs about 900 a month. We lost alot of housing.

Whenever we get orders (which should be soon) we'll know where we're moving and whether we'll be able to rent a house (got a baby on the way now, need more than 1 BR, 1 BA), or if we'll be using on-base housing.

Find Dave Ramsey for frugal

Submitted by Keith_Indy on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 16:54.

Find Dave Ramsey for an easy way to get on the path to prosperity.  And don't confuse prosperity with being rich or anything.

His Financial Peace University can make a huge difference in how you live.

Jon Stewart

Submitted by chemjeff on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 01:12.

..."SO, Wall Street, let me get this straight - Washington is going to give you a trillion dollars and you're not HAPPY?"

This is entirely unsurprising coming from a person who uncritically accepts the liberal stereotype of Wall Street types as unrepentant greedy capitalist pigs.  At the end of the day, jokes that are funny to him are things that would be funny to a liberal, because Jon Stewart is a liberal.  It's too bad, because I used to like Comedy Central, when they had MST3K and the like.  Now I am loathe to watch them because they are just the funny version of MSNBC.

Jon Stewart is an asshole

Submitted by Cahnman on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 03:47.

n/t

our definitions of asshole must differ.

Submitted by RisingTide on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 11:08.

to my definition, Biden is an asshole, as is Obama and McCain, and most top folks in Washington. Jon? nah, he's actually a decent guy.

Stewart is an entertainer. 

Submitted by Keith_Indy on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 11:31.

Stewart is an entertainer.  People who look to him for something profound are the funny ones.

ahh, he manages it sometimes, just like Carlin

Submitted by RisingTide on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 11:48.

used to. But mostly it's about washingtonian hypocrisy, which is always funny...

(he asked huckabee "what if being gay was a choice? " -- and that whole riff was pretty profound)

Comedy Central had MST3K?

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 10:42.

I'm pretty sure that was the Sci-Fi channel...but maybe those were just re-runs.

Also, have you heard of RiffTrax? You can purchase an MP3 of Mike, Crow and Servo, and sync it up with current and older movies. Great stuff... especially the 300 one.

MST3K

Submitted by chemjeff on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 11:54.

Yes, Comedy Central had MST3K before it went to SciFi channel.

Hmph, whaddyaknow

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 13:22.

Thanks for the insight! And take some time to check out RiffTrax. Well worth it.