Matt Yglesias

21 Responses to “Endgame”

1. Matt W Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

   The last two paragraphs on this page do an excellent job of conflating causation and correlation.

   Wait, is that “James J. Cramer” Jim Cramer, the shouty guy who we last saw getting his ass handed to him on Jon Stewart’s show?

2. Duvall Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

   Pretty weak argument from Cramer. Really needed some sound effects to bolster his points.

3. e julius drivingstorm Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

   At one time, I believed I was the world’s fastest, least-accurate typist. Now I’m slow, and my accuracy is positively Yglesian.

4. larrybob Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 7:06 pm

   wow, cramer still has not recovered from his daily show appearance.

5. kid destroyer Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 7:46 pm

   I would say that Cramer, if it is the same guy, is sure proof that who writes in these magazines are not the most talented or insightful, but those with a certain amount of fame and authority. A shame.

6. Richard Steven Hack Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

   The only important thing I learned this week – today, actually – is that Moon Bloodgood, the hottie from Terminator: Salvation, is now going to be on Burn Notice.

   One more reason, besides Gabrielle Anwar, for me to check out Burn Notice.

7. kid bitzer Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

   actually, matt, i have no opinion about your typing speed.

   the errors you make are not typing errors anyhow–you would make the same spelling mistakes if you were writing long-hand. when you write “too” for “two” or “right” for “write”, you always type the wrong word *correctly*, it’s just that you type the wrong word because you are thinking the wrong word.

   i mean, you do stuff like writing “indefensible” when you clearly mean “indispensable”. it’s usually a phonetic confusion in your case. and yet, you type “indefensible” perfectly well.

8. Eric Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

   Many here have said that a lot of Matt’s typos would make sense if he was using voice recognition software.

   Matt, indulge us here in the comment section when you get back from the movie and please at long last confirm or deny this.

9. big bad wolf Says:
   June 5th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

   kid bitzer, i gotta disagree with that. i think if matt were writing or printing he would make fewer mistakes. one has to shape the letter when writing or printing and that focuses the mind on the task of spelling. fingers flashing across a keyboard trying to keep up with thoughts accomplish the spelling task by by pushing down a key; there is no real attention paid to which key. then, if the typist is not paying close attention to the spell-checker suggestions, he hits the option to substitute, for example, the correctly spelled version of indefensible, which is offered as the first option because that is closer to what his flying fingers typed. it’s wrong, of course, since he initially meant to type indispensable, and he is not proofreading, he is only using the spell checker. you can be annoyed with him for that, but i don’t think you can say he would be just as likely to make the types of mistakes he does if he were writing or printing.

   i find matt’s missteps fairly endearing, though they seem to provoke more comment and abuse than anything of substance he he puts up.

10. RickD Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    Haven’t we heard enough from Cramer? I thought his credibility had already been shot.

11. brendan Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 9:07 pm

    meaning no disrespect, but if you find that cartoon ‘exciting,’ than you must be a really cheap date.

12. cmholm Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

    The typing link doesn’t tell us what your actual score was. For instance, I scored:
    Net Speed: 45 WPM
    Accuracy: 88%
    Gross Speed: 51 WPM

13. James Gary Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    Regarding the cartoon: it might be nice if CAP got a bit more professional in its multimedia presentations. I say this not out of any kind of snobbery, but from my own experience trying to watch the thing–the animation and voice-over are just intrusively amateurish.

14. rapier Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    As long as stocks are rising Cramer is happy. He is a monomaniacal fool. Bernanke will be relieved to return to the ivy tower and hopefully relative obscurity soon enough. Happy or regretful or even aware of his role in the relentless undemocratic transfer of wealth and power to tiny elites attached to stateless financial corporations will remain forever unknown. He played the role history provided. As to Cramer. He will spend the rest of his life in manic depressive excess. Same as it ever was.

15. Aaron Bergman Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    Holy crap. Michael Pollan is actually Alexander Grothendieck.

    Who knew?

16. SqueakyRat Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    All guys with no hair look the same.

17. Luke Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 12:13 am

    Nice cartoon, but I liked it better when at the end hippies weren’t allowed to burn flags.

18. Max424n Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 1:21 am

    Didn’t Kramer admit on the Daily Show that he had in fact committed several federal crimes, or is insider trading legal now?

19. rapier Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 8:43 am

    There is a video of Cramer describing how he supposedly moved stocks he was playing by using the options and futures markets when he ran a hedge fund. It may or may not be true. It takes some big size trades and deep pockets to effect such moves.

    All stocks and the market averages are constantly being gamed by big players working for their own advantage. Such things are by necessity meant to be very very short term strategies and only sometimes longer term of days or weeks. The stock market is a sewer and stocks are crap.

    While 80% of people have virtually no skin in the stock game we have been conditioned to believe stock market averages are the most important economic indicator there is. The consumer confidence number tracks the stock market averages almost perfectly. A million and quarter jobs were lost since March but since the market rose 30% off the bottom Con Con has launched upward. Everyone consciously or not takes the market as an indicator of the overall economy. The entire thing is fraught with logical errors but 40 years of propaganda and conditioning have created a unassailable reality in peoples minds.

    Every bailout has been aimed at one thing, to get stocks to rise, in order to boost confidence. If only confidence can rise then people will spend money and borrow and the economy will grow, is the logic. By definition the whole thing is a confidence game. A con. Our elites have embraced ever tighter the con game, even as it has exploded and is shattered. They know nothing else.

    The era of permanent growth is over. Cling to the con if you want since it is so comforting.

20. Alan Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    The cartoon has a few holes. In my town bookstores and hardware stores don’t offer health insurance. The first trip would’ve been to one of two Emergency Rooms or the community health center.

    As for the woman with heart disease, how does a chronic condition disappear after one trip to the ER? Did they do bypass surgery?

    Hospitals have contracts with insurance companies. Costs don’t go up from one unpaid ER visit. The video could’ve showed the woman going to bankruptcy court for high medical bills. Was that a nonprofit or for-profit hospital pursuing collections so aggressively?

    Health care reform is sorely needed. I find CAP’s positioning of small businesses interesting. Big companies desperately want to do less to cover employees. Depending on the structure, corporations could be big winners or losers. The Obama team’s use of U.S. Chamber of Commerce lingo, which this video subtly pushes, points to business winning.

    The race to the lowest global common denominator on worker pay/benefits continues. Watch the details folks. They will be telling.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/nyregion/06pension.html?hp

21. linus Says:
    June 7th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    Here’s one for the mAtt Y fellow.