Love this, Matt. Thank you. My husband and I went to Occupy Wall Street. One night during it we were invited to dinner at a restaurant uptown. Some WS people were there, all talking about how important it was for the government to bail them out. They had no interest in Occupy WallStreet or how the protestors felt or what so many people had lost. I've since seen the same contempt over and over again in the elites (most recently John Kerry and Gavin Newsom). They have contempt for people who have hopes and dreams in their own small businesses or middle and working class homes, life and family, or who are proud to work with their hands. I saw such emptiness in these WS people. They saw the world as winners (them, because not caring about what they invested in, just the profit made them invulnerable) - and losers (anyone who put their heart and soul into what they did and invested in, which made them vulnerable).
Beautifully put 💗 But" interesting" that the John Kerrys and the Gavin Newsoms have no problem manipulating and using the middle and working classes to feed up their power as political figures and the money and influence that flows from that. Beyond inhumane.
Thanks, Carol. We now live in my home state of CA. Even my 95 year old dyed-in-the-wool Democrat mom asked me to get her a recall Newsom petition. He's no longer popular here where I live, except of course, with the Meghan Markle crowd.
Newsom even looks like a lizard. I could not be more left and am aching to sign the petition....only place to do it where I live is a truly disturbing QAnon "Women Republicans" group that I'm afraid to go near for multiple reasons. Help!
What is truly amazing about people is how many, many logical and sane people fall for some crazy conspiracy or other. I recall that after JFK's assassination all sorts of believable conspiracy theories abounded. Now looks like some might be actually true.
It is so easy to manipulate idnividuals that it has become commonplace in our world now. Today's nut-job conspiracy is tomorrows verified history. Become informed, read and listen to both sides or even a third side and decide for yourself. Appears too many insist on following the herd following some leader or another loon without a critical eye. Clicks are the name of today's game.
"Today's nut-job conspiracy is tomorrows verified history. Yes, indeed...and the weaponized version of "conspiracy theories"has its origin in the official source of msm news: https://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=14945
I appreciate you stating your opinion. It's not mine. Newsom has exhibited a flagrant disdain for working and middle class people here and for small businesses - I have six friends who ran small CA businesses who've fled to other states - Newsom has violated his own edicts, and has mismanaged billions of dollars that somehow didn't go to the people the money was supposed to help. He's a Getty protégé. He needs to be taught a lesson that he works for us, we're not his serfs.
Calif has been run by a small group of families for decades. Newson is a part of that clan. His competence and ability to deliver what any governor is expected to deliver to citizens is NOT there. He is a dilettante who cares little for the citizens of Calif or anyone else for that matter. Dump him ASAP. D.C. is populated with Newsom clones and wannabes.
I really do see GretaB's points. However, one issue seems to be that a primary challenge during the scheduled election may not succeed - then Newsom is off the hook in terms of accountability. I used to live in NY and Cuomo disingenuously touted his election victories as validation of his agenda, even though he got the **lowest share of votes among all the winners of statewide office that year**.
I think there is a greater chance that a serious Democratic challenger will emerge during the recall, if only to ensure a Republican does not win (which seems impossible but you never know these days....) I definitely agree that a strong message needs to be sent in rejecting a politician of his ilk. Having said this, my political instincts are not the best, so curious to hear others' ideas.
I love CA-- such an amazing state. So sorry about Newsom, even Schwartenegger was better --ie less superficial. LOL!!! perfect re: Meghan Markle -- she lived in Toronto pre-marriage and underwhelmed people here.
Carol, have you seen the review of Markle's sister's family biography? Sweetheart M.M. sounds like another Melania, without the accent. Yeek, what a piece of fly-covered moose doody. Nasty piece of work.
Do you think there is enough momentum to get Newsome recalled, given that he received over 60% of the vote in his last election? Cali is a one party state along the coast it seems.
The handling of Covid and vaccination here has been unbelievably incompetent, inconsistent, incoherent, infuriating, and corrupt. Everyone I talk with is exasperated. The unemployment system failed in numerous catastrophic ways (billions of dollars in fraudulent claims; legitimate claims taking weeks and months to process; at one point they simply don’t stopped accepting claims for 2 weeks to catch up). The French Laundry "let them eat cake" moment was deplorable and telling.
CA *is* a one party state, I don't know that a Republican could win. I'm hopeful that a legit Dem candidate could emerge, but not familiar enough with CA politics to really know if it's possible.
I could be very wrong but despite all his flaws and abrasiveness Donald Trump seems to get the American dream ethos. I know people who know and have worked for him and say on a personal level he is very generous and they feel he understands them. In his business dealings he is a SOB and little empathy for others. Pretty odd but often the profile of many CEO's and Titans of industry.
It has been said that sociopathic personalities break many eggs and cause anxiety but build businesses and get things done. That is the way of the world. McArthur and Patton were abrasive, self centered, egotistical jerks but they could win wars singlehandedly. It takes an eclectic society to successfully make a democracy run. Yin and Yang are not just Chinese symbols but shorthand for stasis.
People seem to forget that many Wall Street elites jumped from windows and/or retreated to depressed lives when the crash of 1929 wrecked their dreams and aspirations. No one class of people is ever immune to the whipsaw life killing vicissitudes of "the markets." We only hear and empathize about the "little" guy and his/her life's arc. Se are all subject to the storms and tempests of an unfair world.
Indeed, his flaws and abrasiveness lost him the election (fraud or not - it shouldn't have even been close) because of his lack of humility re: COVID. He played into the opposition's hands too many times. The real thing about Trump's re-alignment of the GOP has to do with the fact that he, too, has been shunned from the ELITES for a lifetime.
Keep in mind - he didn't get into an Ivy League school out of high school... he started at Fordham (not a bad school) and transferred into Wharton/UPenn. He's a Queens Guy in a Manhattan world. He was pilloried for "destroying" Bonwit Teller. His "gauche" gold-leaf taste made him a mockery for the Architectural Digest crowd.
And he really did have a Rodney Dangerfield-esque (Al Czervik, Monty Capuletti, Thornton Melon) sense of the aspirations of the "regular guy": Casinos, Models, Helicopters, etc. That he was close to the building trades made him understand the people (both in light and shadow) that actually do the hard work - stevedores, doormen, janitors, union local reps, etc.
This is what the Democrats don't understand about his supporters. They know that he knows who they are and what they do. This isn't about race - it's about perceived class. It's one of the reasons why AOC gets plaudits from her supporters, too... she was a "bartender" so there's a perception that she isn't one of the "bad" politicians who looks down on the electorate. Time will tell on that one.
Think about the loudest voices against Donald Trump - and their average income. They are all professional class. Few small business owners among them.
Unfortunately I think time has told on AOC. Greenwald's perspective about interviewing her after she first won office talking a big game about Class to going allin on IdPol just 6 months later seems to say it all. Maybe she believed in it once but she forgot most of it pretty quick. Now she's become the whitiest White Woman on television.
<<They know that he knows who they are and what they do. This isn't about race - it's about perceived class.>>
Nailed it. One doesn't have to be a DJT supporter to understand his support base.
Will repeat myself until I'm hoarse: he *picked up* minority support in 2020. Maybe some of these people actually care more about class than "woke" issues.
Hi Greta, thank you for your reply. Why do you see them as irrelevant? I'm genuinely curious (when I ask a question it's because I'm interested, not being antagonistic, you're entitled to your view). I see them as part of the continuum. WS backs Newsom and Kerry. They are elites screwing over the middle and working class of this country.
I'm a populist working on WS so I'll try to offer a reconciliation: WS rewards "risk-adjusted return". Many people in WS wants to do what their hearts tell them to but it is the framework of "risk-adjusted return" that governs their behavior.
The framework is rather cold-hearted because if you follow your heart, you should accept the risk. Generally speaking this is how they apply the rule to everyone.
This is where you come in and say, this is so cynical, because they did get bailed out! On the other hand, I can also point out many Lehman employees who lost every single dollar of their savings over the years.
The only person(s) I can think of as more greedy, inhumane, and power hungry than the fat cat Wall Streeters is Nancy Pelosi and her ilk who--by Nancy's own admission--withheld stimulus payments from desperate Americans so Trump wouldn't win the election.
Mitch McConnell is a bastard too! I remember after the Georgia runoffs when the Republican establishment tried to pretend that it was all Trumps fault that they lost the Senate. Here is a crazy idea. Maybe, just maybe it had something to do with Mitch McConnell? After all, this election would determine if old Mitch would be the Senate Majority Leader. Keep in mind several things. First, Nancy Pelosi tried to play games with the stimulus checks and blame it on the Republicans. It failed and a majority of Americans across the political spectrum were pissed. Second, congressional votes did not coincide well with presidential votes last election. Hmm... it's almost as if there were other political considerations than presidential party. Finally, the Senate runoff election, occurred at a point when Trump was no more. So right before the election, Mitch decides that he will give struggling Americans the finger and demonstrate that he was no different than Pelosi, in an election that would determine just how much power he would get. What the hell was he thinking, and why should Republican voters stay with him after this blatant display of petty stupidity? Also, while we are on the subject, why should American voters have to listen to our establishment keep pretending that either of these two have morals or principals?
Term limits can limit the visible positions (politics is acting for ugly people). It doesn't curtail the permanent behind-the-scenes bureaucracy, where people can float around for 3 or 4 decades and leave with fat pensions regardless of what pain is inflicted to the hoi polloi.
Would that it were that easy, VJ, but Congress, the elected part of our government that's supposed to hold the real power, has long ago ceded any responsibility to the President, the permanent DC government of agencies and bureaus, and K Street lobbyists. What pieces of legislation are not written specifically to benefit corporations and/.or pander to self-anointed "leaders" of voting blocs, are just grab bags of favors passed back and forth by Congresspersons.
And we can count on the parties to replace a well-limited scumbag politician with another very much the same. It's all self-interest, backscratching, patronage and influence-peddling. The one thing term limits might actually help with is to prevent the rise of long-term royalty like Pelosi and McConnell...but I'm afraid we might get the same kind of power centralization, but with less experienced and more ruthless people in the top positions.
I too wish for some common sense measure to improve our governance...but I don't really know what it would be.
Get rid of the elite. Government is benign in and of itself. The elite orchestrated a coup a long time ago and we lost control of our government to them.
You can't just get mad at the bribe takers when the system takes two parties to function.
Completely agree. Had McConnell said yes to the $2k checks instead of 600, the GOP candidates would have won. This wasn't a referendum on Trump or "fraudulent systems". It was a referendum on COVID relief. McConnell, for such a "brilliant" strategist, made it about the money. Then again, did he do it on purpose to hurt Trump's legacy? Discuss amongst yourselves...
In 2005, my husband and I were both employed in good jobs and were about to adopt our first child. So, we thought it was a good idea to get a bigger house (with 20% down). Fast forward to 2008- hubby lost his job (2/3 of our income), and our house value fell below what we owed, so selling it didn't seem like a good idea. We scraped, borrowed from our mothers, liquidated our retirement and other savings, to keep paying our bills, all the while praying and waiting for the financial and housing market winds to shift. We kept it up for 3 years, even when my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's. We tried and tried to work with our mortgage lender, but they were totally unwilling, and there was no way to force them into a permanent restructuring of the loan. So, in 2011, we cried uncle- defaulted on our mortgage, declared bankruptcy and eventually moved into rental housing. My husband never worked again. Thanks to help from our mothers and promotions I got in my career, we dug out. In 2020, we were finally able to buy another home. And we were the lucky ones.
I remember watching "The Big Short" in 2015. It was gut wrenching. I guess at the end of it all, what really gets me is not that stocks rise and fall; it's that some (very rich) people bet on and profit from the failure of others. And a lot of regular Americans are just collateral damage in that game.
Thank you for sharing your story 💗 You have amazing fortitude and spirit. It's wonderful to see that you have been able to buy another home. Yes you are right we the lucky ones have lots to be grateful for. Thanks for reminding me.
One of the best interviews I’ve ever read. Your work is so lethal Matt because although you write about politics, the best stories cut across it. This slayed me because it’s about the arc of people’s hopes, how some try to hook in and achieve something, only for a tsunami they have no defence against, to wash it all away. What the Redditors did is so totally understandable, a crowdsourced giant middle finger to a financial system stepping on lives, memories, honest work, like some B-grade Godzilla. That line about a fractional part of a hero’s journey, man, that gets me. Thanks for all you do.
Goddamn you to hell Obama, for only making whole the banksters who brought on the disaster and then going around with a self-satisfied smirk for the rest of your worse-than-useless Trump-creating life.
This goes back well beyond Obomber and the idiot Bush. The Powell memo in '71 was the beginning. Presidents are (s)elected to keep you buying into the BS American dream illusion.
This piece demonstrates how rarely the media gives voice to people who actually have a soul without patronizing or victimizing them. Important, powerful, and heartbreaking.
I had to stop reading this piece several times --heart wrenching, anger inducing but mainly due to my tears. There isn't one person who I have discussed Reddit/Gamestop with that hasn't responded with anti- Wall Street anger and disgust at the depth of this game of greed that is beyond out of control.
Unfortunately, my liberal friends, who are normally very well-informed about current events, are all "BUT THE FUNDAMENTALS" on this one. "But Gamestop isn't going to make big profits" etc. And also seem to be buying the "Redditors are alt-righters/Trump supporters" stuff.
Our society is currently like the WWE the winners and losers are all pre determined. And if you don’t like it and complain they will label you (Racist/Nazi/Trumpest/BernieBro etc) and ban you from social media and polite society.
Are we any closer to voters realizing that hedge funds and politicians behave in similar ways..... Looking to make a quick buck, screw over anyone in the way and then claim they're the victim when things don't go their way? Look at all the fawning over the marionette in the White House.
Remember what he said in Georgia's election? Vote for the Dems and the 2k checks go out on day one, he cried. Sure Joe.... Sure.
Everyone should read “Hillbilly Elegy”. It brings to life the real results of preppy elites making rules and trade deals that destroy blue collar lives and companies and towns. It is a sad reality.
I only saw the movie...but maybe there was a part in the book that explains how Appalachia was a wealthy region in the 60s and how NAFTA causes a breakdown in the American family and drug addiction.
TY for sharing the real life stories of people like me who lost it all in 2008. Today I am grateful to have a roof over my head and to be free of Covid for the time being., after a middleclass life style for 50 years on the east coast.
Government has a clear role to play, distinct form the for profit, private sector. Making this distinction is important as there is a lot of confusion . MG
Government didn't do squat to protect main street from wall street. They regulate small businesses out of business and help big business become bigger. Government takes it's profit, in the form of campaign cash and perks, from big business.
The owners of the government decide what they will give you and the useful idiots in the government rubber stamp it while sticking you with the bill for the loot and pillage of the elite.
Nothing like confusing the shovel hitting you over the head with the person actually swinging it..... wow!
Great interview. Chose a modest school, paid back his loan. Worked during school, made sacrifices. Much better educated on investing than most in the media. To them, though, he was a caricature to be written off as a joke.
Lots of highlights, but I loved his riff on "conspiracy theories." Applicable all over the place, not just the world of investing. There must be 100 terms by now when the media uses them, most people just laugh and roll their eyes.
The newest one that boggles my mind is "Trumpism", which, like most of the terms to which you refer, is something that exists only in their minds. As if the guy put together a series of manifestos and white papers laying out a philosophy, or even a platform. lol!! Sure he did. It's as meaningless as the amorphously-defined "misogyny", and "alt-right adjacent" and the much abused "racist" (which once had a useful meaning with no carveouts).
All those terms they use mean nothing more than "what they mean when they say them". IOW, nothing useful for normal human communication
Let's not forget that Jimmy Kimmel suggested the GameStop phenomenon was a Russian ruse, and then called out Jon Stewart for supposedly being a Trump stooge.
The stock market was designed as a way to efficiently direct capital to companies with the best chance of creating value. The growing dominance of speculators - who use the stock market as a form of legal gambling, rather than an investment tool - is greatly diluting that purpose.
There ought to be a way to devise rules that promote investment and discourage speculation.
Investors help create real wealth that enriches our society; speculators are merely economic parasites who suck wealth out of the economy while contributing nothing.
when in doubt, go russian. "hey, careful man, there's a beverage here" (Lebowski balancing his white Russian as he's being muscled into the Big Lebowski's limo)
cannot overemphasize the total excellence of this strategy. Russia makes everything better. Roulette, cocktails, hypersonic cruise missiles, you name it.
You don't need 'investors" to invest in society. The investors of yesterday are the speculators of today.
Since the beginning these "markets" have been founded by and ruled over by the elite who write the rules and more importantly decide who has to abide by them.
Until we are rid of this weird concept of their being an elite among us we will continue to be exploited by them.
Damn. Space-Peanut really brought some tears to my eyes. Thanks for interviewing him, Matt. This kind of journalism is important, and I'm glad you're the one doing it.
Hahahahaha. You think the universe guarantees anyone success? If your family is in America you are part of the 1% of global elites for whom poverty has never meant searching for potable water or living with a disease like leprosy without access to a cure.
My father came from a country without clean water or an education system, so yeah I’m pretty well aware of the outside world. You, on the other hand, clearly need to explore the world outside of your own ass
Love this, Matt. Thank you. My husband and I went to Occupy Wall Street. One night during it we were invited to dinner at a restaurant uptown. Some WS people were there, all talking about how important it was for the government to bail them out. They had no interest in Occupy WallStreet or how the protestors felt or what so many people had lost. I've since seen the same contempt over and over again in the elites (most recently John Kerry and Gavin Newsom). They have contempt for people who have hopes and dreams in their own small businesses or middle and working class homes, life and family, or who are proud to work with their hands. I saw such emptiness in these WS people. They saw the world as winners (them, because not caring about what they invested in, just the profit made them invulnerable) - and losers (anyone who put their heart and soul into what they did and invested in, which made them vulnerable).
Beautifully put 💗 But" interesting" that the John Kerrys and the Gavin Newsoms have no problem manipulating and using the middle and working classes to feed up their power as political figures and the money and influence that flows from that. Beyond inhumane.
Thanks, Carol. We now live in my home state of CA. Even my 95 year old dyed-in-the-wool Democrat mom asked me to get her a recall Newsom petition. He's no longer popular here where I live, except of course, with the Meghan Markle crowd.
Newsom even looks like a lizard. I could not be more left and am aching to sign the petition....only place to do it where I live is a truly disturbing QAnon "Women Republicans" group that I'm afraid to go near for multiple reasons. Help!
Aw, you never know when you could make new friends. The QA folks are probably feeling their feelings right now.
💕
QAnon Women - Just go in and ask them where Jimmy Hoffa's buried because you know that will solve the ultimate mystery and grab the petition!
What is truly amazing about people is how many, many logical and sane people fall for some crazy conspiracy or other. I recall that after JFK's assassination all sorts of believable conspiracy theories abounded. Now looks like some might be actually true.
It is so easy to manipulate idnividuals that it has become commonplace in our world now. Today's nut-job conspiracy is tomorrows verified history. Become informed, read and listen to both sides or even a third side and decide for yourself. Appears too many insist on following the herd following some leader or another loon without a critical eye. Clicks are the name of today's game.
"Today's nut-job conspiracy is tomorrows verified history. Yes, indeed...and the weaponized version of "conspiracy theories"has its origin in the official source of msm news: https://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=14945
I couldn't agree more.
Recalls are very expensive. I'd rather wait and vote in the next scheduled election. I don't know who would be a great replacement.
I appreciate you stating your opinion. It's not mine. Newsom has exhibited a flagrant disdain for working and middle class people here and for small businesses - I have six friends who ran small CA businesses who've fled to other states - Newsom has violated his own edicts, and has mismanaged billions of dollars that somehow didn't go to the people the money was supposed to help. He's a Getty protégé. He needs to be taught a lesson that he works for us, we're not his serfs.
Calif has been run by a small group of families for decades. Newson is a part of that clan. His competence and ability to deliver what any governor is expected to deliver to citizens is NOT there. He is a dilettante who cares little for the citizens of Calif or anyone else for that matter. Dump him ASAP. D.C. is populated with Newsom clones and wannabes.
I really do see GretaB's points. However, one issue seems to be that a primary challenge during the scheduled election may not succeed - then Newsom is off the hook in terms of accountability. I used to live in NY and Cuomo disingenuously touted his election victories as validation of his agenda, even though he got the **lowest share of votes among all the winners of statewide office that year**.
I think there is a greater chance that a serious Democratic challenger will emerge during the recall, if only to ensure a Republican does not win (which seems impossible but you never know these days....) I definitely agree that a strong message needs to be sent in rejecting a politician of his ilk. Having said this, my political instincts are not the best, so curious to hear others' ideas.
Mike Cernovich ALL the way!
I love CA-- such an amazing state. So sorry about Newsom, even Schwartenegger was better --ie less superficial. LOL!!! perfect re: Meghan Markle -- she lived in Toronto pre-marriage and underwhelmed people here.
Carol, have you seen the review of Markle's sister's family biography? Sweetheart M.M. sounds like another Melania, without the accent. Yeek, what a piece of fly-covered moose doody. Nasty piece of work.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/samantha-markle-claims-meghan-has-seemingly-brainwashed-prince-harry
"The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister - Part 1 of 2"
Do you think there is enough momentum to get Newsome recalled, given that he received over 60% of the vote in his last election? Cali is a one party state along the coast it seems.
https://calmatters.org/politics/2021/02/gavin-newsom-polls-approval-plummets-california/?utm_medium=email&mc_cid=1b1ef64b5f&mc_eid=8843c3b83b
The handling of Covid and vaccination here has been unbelievably incompetent, inconsistent, incoherent, infuriating, and corrupt. Everyone I talk with is exasperated. The unemployment system failed in numerous catastrophic ways (billions of dollars in fraudulent claims; legitimate claims taking weeks and months to process; at one point they simply don’t stopped accepting claims for 2 weeks to catch up). The French Laundry "let them eat cake" moment was deplorable and telling.
CA *is* a one party state, I don't know that a Republican could win. I'm hopeful that a legit Dem candidate could emerge, but not familiar enough with CA politics to really know if it's possible.
I could be very wrong but despite all his flaws and abrasiveness Donald Trump seems to get the American dream ethos. I know people who know and have worked for him and say on a personal level he is very generous and they feel he understands them. In his business dealings he is a SOB and little empathy for others. Pretty odd but often the profile of many CEO's and Titans of industry.
It has been said that sociopathic personalities break many eggs and cause anxiety but build businesses and get things done. That is the way of the world. McArthur and Patton were abrasive, self centered, egotistical jerks but they could win wars singlehandedly. It takes an eclectic society to successfully make a democracy run. Yin and Yang are not just Chinese symbols but shorthand for stasis.
People seem to forget that many Wall Street elites jumped from windows and/or retreated to depressed lives when the crash of 1929 wrecked their dreams and aspirations. No one class of people is ever immune to the whipsaw life killing vicissitudes of "the markets." We only hear and empathize about the "little" guy and his/her life's arc. Se are all subject to the storms and tempests of an unfair world.
Indeed, his flaws and abrasiveness lost him the election (fraud or not - it shouldn't have even been close) because of his lack of humility re: COVID. He played into the opposition's hands too many times. The real thing about Trump's re-alignment of the GOP has to do with the fact that he, too, has been shunned from the ELITES for a lifetime.
Keep in mind - he didn't get into an Ivy League school out of high school... he started at Fordham (not a bad school) and transferred into Wharton/UPenn. He's a Queens Guy in a Manhattan world. He was pilloried for "destroying" Bonwit Teller. His "gauche" gold-leaf taste made him a mockery for the Architectural Digest crowd.
And he really did have a Rodney Dangerfield-esque (Al Czervik, Monty Capuletti, Thornton Melon) sense of the aspirations of the "regular guy": Casinos, Models, Helicopters, etc. That he was close to the building trades made him understand the people (both in light and shadow) that actually do the hard work - stevedores, doormen, janitors, union local reps, etc.
This is what the Democrats don't understand about his supporters. They know that he knows who they are and what they do. This isn't about race - it's about perceived class. It's one of the reasons why AOC gets plaudits from her supporters, too... she was a "bartender" so there's a perception that she isn't one of the "bad" politicians who looks down on the electorate. Time will tell on that one.
Think about the loudest voices against Donald Trump - and their average income. They are all professional class. Few small business owners among them.
Unfortunately I think time has told on AOC. Greenwald's perspective about interviewing her after she first won office talking a big game about Class to going allin on IdPol just 6 months later seems to say it all. Maybe she believed in it once but she forgot most of it pretty quick. Now she's become the whitiest White Woman on television.
Tip of the hat for the Thornton Melon reference.
<<They know that he knows who they are and what they do. This isn't about race - it's about perceived class.>>
Nailed it. One doesn't have to be a DJT supporter to understand his support base.
Will repeat myself until I'm hoarse: he *picked up* minority support in 2020. Maybe some of these people actually care more about class than "woke" issues.
Lower income bracket did enjoy the fastest earnings growth under his watch, so that's that.
I agree.
Newsom and Kerry are completely irrelevant to this article. Why call out them?
Hi Greta, thank you for your reply. Why do you see them as irrelevant? I'm genuinely curious (when I ask a question it's because I'm interested, not being antagonistic, you're entitled to your view). I see them as part of the continuum. WS backs Newsom and Kerry. They are elites screwing over the middle and working class of this country.
I'm a populist working on WS so I'll try to offer a reconciliation: WS rewards "risk-adjusted return". Many people in WS wants to do what their hearts tell them to but it is the framework of "risk-adjusted return" that governs their behavior.
The framework is rather cold-hearted because if you follow your heart, you should accept the risk. Generally speaking this is how they apply the rule to everyone.
This is where you come in and say, this is so cynical, because they did get bailed out! On the other hand, I can also point out many Lehman employees who lost every single dollar of their savings over the years.
The only person(s) I can think of as more greedy, inhumane, and power hungry than the fat cat Wall Streeters is Nancy Pelosi and her ilk who--by Nancy's own admission--withheld stimulus payments from desperate Americans so Trump wouldn't win the election.
Mitch McConnell is a bastard too! I remember after the Georgia runoffs when the Republican establishment tried to pretend that it was all Trumps fault that they lost the Senate. Here is a crazy idea. Maybe, just maybe it had something to do with Mitch McConnell? After all, this election would determine if old Mitch would be the Senate Majority Leader. Keep in mind several things. First, Nancy Pelosi tried to play games with the stimulus checks and blame it on the Republicans. It failed and a majority of Americans across the political spectrum were pissed. Second, congressional votes did not coincide well with presidential votes last election. Hmm... it's almost as if there were other political considerations than presidential party. Finally, the Senate runoff election, occurred at a point when Trump was no more. So right before the election, Mitch decides that he will give struggling Americans the finger and demonstrate that he was no different than Pelosi, in an election that would determine just how much power he would get. What the hell was he thinking, and why should Republican voters stay with him after this blatant display of petty stupidity? Also, while we are on the subject, why should American voters have to listen to our establishment keep pretending that either of these two have morals or principals?
Term limits!!
Term limits can limit the visible positions (politics is acting for ugly people). It doesn't curtail the permanent behind-the-scenes bureaucracy, where people can float around for 3 or 4 decades and leave with fat pensions regardless of what pain is inflicted to the hoi polloi.
Would that it were that easy, VJ, but Congress, the elected part of our government that's supposed to hold the real power, has long ago ceded any responsibility to the President, the permanent DC government of agencies and bureaus, and K Street lobbyists. What pieces of legislation are not written specifically to benefit corporations and/.or pander to self-anointed "leaders" of voting blocs, are just grab bags of favors passed back and forth by Congresspersons.
And we can count on the parties to replace a well-limited scumbag politician with another very much the same. It's all self-interest, backscratching, patronage and influence-peddling. The one thing term limits might actually help with is to prevent the rise of long-term royalty like Pelosi and McConnell...but I'm afraid we might get the same kind of power centralization, but with less experienced and more ruthless people in the top positions.
I too wish for some common sense measure to improve our governance...but I don't really know what it would be.
Get rid of the elite. Government is benign in and of itself. The elite orchestrated a coup a long time ago and we lost control of our government to them.
You can't just get mad at the bribe takers when the system takes two parties to function.
Limits would make no difference in a government that just rubber stamps white papers written by billionaire owned think tanks.
Completely agree. Had McConnell said yes to the $2k checks instead of 600, the GOP candidates would have won. This wasn't a referendum on Trump or "fraudulent systems". It was a referendum on COVID relief. McConnell, for such a "brilliant" strategist, made it about the money. Then again, did he do it on purpose to hurt Trump's legacy? Discuss amongst yourselves...
The dig at Nancy is unrelated to the comment or the topic. Perhaps another forum would be more appropriate for political shots.
The topic of discussion is the shittiest people on the planet. You don't think Nancy Pelosi belongs??
She's just a tool of the shittiest people on the planet just like her counter parts in congress.
What are you? The on-topic police? And the subject was her nephew, so any similarity in outlook is worth remarking.
Why are defending powerful people who are objectively, provably corrupt? They would probably treat you like dirt if you approach them.
Please explain. I'd be fascinated why you don't think this is all connected.
In 2005, my husband and I were both employed in good jobs and were about to adopt our first child. So, we thought it was a good idea to get a bigger house (with 20% down). Fast forward to 2008- hubby lost his job (2/3 of our income), and our house value fell below what we owed, so selling it didn't seem like a good idea. We scraped, borrowed from our mothers, liquidated our retirement and other savings, to keep paying our bills, all the while praying and waiting for the financial and housing market winds to shift. We kept it up for 3 years, even when my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's. We tried and tried to work with our mortgage lender, but they were totally unwilling, and there was no way to force them into a permanent restructuring of the loan. So, in 2011, we cried uncle- defaulted on our mortgage, declared bankruptcy and eventually moved into rental housing. My husband never worked again. Thanks to help from our mothers and promotions I got in my career, we dug out. In 2020, we were finally able to buy another home. And we were the lucky ones.
I remember watching "The Big Short" in 2015. It was gut wrenching. I guess at the end of it all, what really gets me is not that stocks rise and fall; it's that some (very rich) people bet on and profit from the failure of others. And a lot of regular Americans are just collateral damage in that game.
Thank you for sharing your story 💗 You have amazing fortitude and spirit. It's wonderful to see that you have been able to buy another home. Yes you are right we the lucky ones have lots to be grateful for. Thanks for reminding me.
I'd say collateral damage is being far to kind of a term here.
One of the best interviews I’ve ever read. Your work is so lethal Matt because although you write about politics, the best stories cut across it. This slayed me because it’s about the arc of people’s hopes, how some try to hook in and achieve something, only for a tsunami they have no defence against, to wash it all away. What the Redditors did is so totally understandable, a crowdsourced giant middle finger to a financial system stepping on lives, memories, honest work, like some B-grade Godzilla. That line about a fractional part of a hero’s journey, man, that gets me. Thanks for all you do.
Goddamn you to hell Obama, for only making whole the banksters who brought on the disaster and then going around with a self-satisfied smirk for the rest of your worse-than-useless Trump-creating life.
This goes back well beyond Obomber and the idiot Bush. The Powell memo in '71 was the beginning. Presidents are (s)elected to keep you buying into the BS American dream illusion.
The S&L crisis had prison terms
Exactly!!!! Then with each president increasingly worse until the Wild West you see today
This piece demonstrates how rarely the media gives voice to people who actually have a soul without patronizing or victimizing them. Important, powerful, and heartbreaking.
I had to stop reading this piece several times --heart wrenching, anger inducing but mainly due to my tears. There isn't one person who I have discussed Reddit/Gamestop with that hasn't responded with anti- Wall Street anger and disgust at the depth of this game of greed that is beyond out of control.
Unfortunately, my liberal friends, who are normally very well-informed about current events, are all "BUT THE FUNDAMENTALS" on this one. "But Gamestop isn't going to make big profits" etc. And also seem to be buying the "Redditors are alt-righters/Trump supporters" stuff.
Are you seriously crying about this or are you signaling your position?
Our society is currently like the WWE the winners and losers are all pre determined. And if you don’t like it and complain they will label you (Racist/Nazi/Trumpest/BernieBro etc) and ban you from social media and polite society.
Are we any closer to voters realizing that hedge funds and politicians behave in similar ways..... Looking to make a quick buck, screw over anyone in the way and then claim they're the victim when things don't go their way? Look at all the fawning over the marionette in the White House.
Remember what he said in Georgia's election? Vote for the Dems and the 2k checks go out on day one, he cried. Sure Joe.... Sure.
Politicians are the useful idiots of the billionaires.
You get a like for the riff on Matt and Katie's show.
Lived this story and love it. Can vouch the Wall Street folks need a reckoning, and I m one of them.
Everyone should read “Hillbilly Elegy”. It brings to life the real results of preppy elites making rules and trade deals that destroy blue collar lives and companies and towns. It is a sad reality.
I only saw the movie...but maybe there was a part in the book that explains how Appalachia was a wealthy region in the 60s and how NAFTA causes a breakdown in the American family and drug addiction.
Join the Marines, avoid getting killed, blame hillbillyism on hillbillies, become successful public commentator. Profit!
TY for sharing the real life stories of people like me who lost it all in 2008. Today I am grateful to have a roof over my head and to be free of Covid for the time being., after a middleclass life style for 50 years on the east coast.
Government has a clear role to play, distinct form the for profit, private sector. Making this distinction is important as there is a lot of confusion . MG
Government didn't do squat to protect main street from wall street. They regulate small businesses out of business and help big business become bigger. Government takes it's profit, in the form of campaign cash and perks, from big business.
Government isn't your friend.
Government is benign, the elite are not your friends.
Half right.
The people IN government TALK benign. If you believe them you deserve what the elites hand out to you. "Government is benign"...wow.
Half right.
The owners of the government decide what they will give you and the useful idiots in the government rubber stamp it while sticking you with the bill for the loot and pillage of the elite.
Nothing like confusing the shovel hitting you over the head with the person actually swinging it..... wow!
Great interview. Chose a modest school, paid back his loan. Worked during school, made sacrifices. Much better educated on investing than most in the media. To them, though, he was a caricature to be written off as a joke.
Lots of highlights, but I loved his riff on "conspiracy theories." Applicable all over the place, not just the world of investing. There must be 100 terms by now when the media uses them, most people just laugh and roll their eyes.
The newest one that boggles my mind is "Trumpism", which, like most of the terms to which you refer, is something that exists only in their minds. As if the guy put together a series of manifestos and white papers laying out a philosophy, or even a platform. lol!! Sure he did. It's as meaningless as the amorphously-defined "misogyny", and "alt-right adjacent" and the much abused "racist" (which once had a useful meaning with no carveouts).
All those terms they use mean nothing more than "what they mean when they say them". IOW, nothing useful for normal human communication
"Adjacent"... what a stroke of genius that was. The Six Adjacents of Kevin Bacon.
Let's not forget that Jimmy Kimmel suggested the GameStop phenomenon was a Russian ruse, and then called out Jon Stewart for supposedly being a Trump stooge.
The stock market was designed as a way to efficiently direct capital to companies with the best chance of creating value. The growing dominance of speculators - who use the stock market as a form of legal gambling, rather than an investment tool - is greatly diluting that purpose.
There ought to be a way to devise rules that promote investment and discourage speculation.
Investors help create real wealth that enriches our society; speculators are merely economic parasites who suck wealth out of the economy while contributing nothing.
when in doubt, go russian. "hey, careful man, there's a beverage here" (Lebowski balancing his white Russian as he's being muscled into the Big Lebowski's limo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUPB4hMAbbY
"when in doubt, go russian."
cannot overemphasize the total excellence of this strategy. Russia makes everything better. Roulette, cocktails, hypersonic cruise missiles, you name it.
You don't need 'investors" to invest in society. The investors of yesterday are the speculators of today.
Since the beginning these "markets" have been founded by and ruled over by the elite who write the rules and more importantly decide who has to abide by them.
Until we are rid of this weird concept of their being an elite among us we will continue to be exploited by them.
"But the trade was destroyed. Whether or not that was intentional is not for me to say."
Yes, a big story that most won't understand. Worth following, so hoping Matt does.
Damn. Space-Peanut really brought some tears to my eyes. Thanks for interviewing him, Matt. This kind of journalism is important, and I'm glad you're the one doing it.
Seriously? You teared up at that?
Time to feel around down there for a Balzac
I was reminiscing on my dad losing his job in construction in the same year and how hard it was for us. You should feel around on there for a heart
Hahahahaha. You think the universe guarantees anyone success? If your family is in America you are part of the 1% of global elites for whom poverty has never meant searching for potable water or living with a disease like leprosy without access to a cure.
Buck up buttercup
My father came from a country without clean water or an education system, so yeah I’m pretty well aware of the outside world. You, on the other hand, clearly need to explore the world outside of your own ass
Wahhhhh wahhhhhh poor widdle limp dick didn’t get it all his way... wahhhhhh
Posit: Nothing afflicts a child’s future like weak freaking men in its family.
If you think having emotions makes you weak than you’re part of the reason for the weak men in this country
Wahhhhhhh wahhhhhhh your dad caught a bad break and you still enjoy a privileged life in America... wahhhhh