McCain Fumbles for Right Tone on Economy

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart’s takedown of Jim Cramer and CNBC is indicative of a real, if fleeting, sea change in our attitudes about the economy, Thomas Frank writes in the Wall Street Journal. “The applause Mr. Stewart has received for his j’accuse is the sound of the old order cracking.” But “clueless pundits often do get on top” and “stay there,” Frank writes, “despite all manner of rebukes handed down by history itself.” More»

(NEWSER) - Unlike a certain talk radio host, John McCain is rooting for Barack Obama—they just don’t agree on much. In an interview with Politico, McCain says he’s trying to work with Obama; in the past week he’s appeared with him at a press conference and consulted with Robert Gates and Joe Biden. “These are terrible, perilous times,” he said. “I don’t want him to fail.” More»

(NEWSER) - Even as the financial crisis rages, Ben Bernanke says it’s time for broad regulatory reforms to stem future crises. Bernanke said today “too big to fail” institutions should be more tightly watched, perhaps by his Federal Reserve. He also admitted that the US hadn’t been prudent with the glut of capital that poured into the market in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Bartering is coming back in Russia as the credit crunch and tight monetary policy leave buyers short of cash, the New York Times reports. At 3%-4% of total sales, such swaps are rare compared to the 1990s—when 50%-75% of Russian sales were bartered—but economists are noting an upswing. Sneakers, food, and underwear (measured by the thousands of pairs) are hot replacements for cash. More»

Instead of predicting financial crisis, they hid it

(NEWSER) - The men who should have been warning us about the impending financial crisis were a wee bit off the mark at times. MSNBC rounds up some of the dumbest things said:

• "Subprime market problems seem likely to be contained."—Ben Bernanke, March 28, 2007
• "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."—John McCain, Sept. 15