Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer

[Alex]

Yes, but the type of overt manipulation highlighted by the clips shown had little to do with the bubble caused by cheap money that put us in our current situation.

In fact, if anything, it was the hedge fund short selling manipulation that Stewart highlighted can be said to have ultimately exposed it all as a house of cards.

I'm not saying that fraud, deception, and manipulation didn't happen but would say it was on the fringe of things and focusing on it to nearly the exclusion of all else (and mislabeling other things as it) leads us down the wrong path.

You really can't be complicit in self-delusion beyond certain initial steps. And as much as we'd like to think there were a bunch of bankers sitting in executive suites rubbing their hands with glee and saying "I can't believe we're getting away with ****ing everything up like this, it'll be fun and then the government will bail us out, cackle, cackle, cackle" I don't think it is real.