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What could possibly be the point of this?
In the midst of debates on financial regulation and China’s currency in April, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat down to discuss the U.S. economy — with comedian Jon Stewart.
Geithner and Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” held an off-the-record meeting at Stewart’s office in New York on April 2, according to Geithner’s appointments calendar, updated through August on Treasury’s website.
Geithner didn’t stay for a television interview with Stewart although other administration officials — most notably President Barack Obama last week — have turned up for on-camera chats.
Sure, Jon Stewart is smart. He’s influential with Obama’s base. And I’d rather have the Treasury Secretary meeting with “our” comedian than with “their” rodeo clown, radio buffoons, and FOX-y Friends.
Treasury has this to say about the meeting, which doesn’t really address Jon Stewart’s economist bona fides:
“Jon Stewart is influential in America, so we took the opportunity for the two to meet and to discuss the economy,” Treasury spokesman Steve Adamske said in an e-mail yesterday. Stewart’s program has poked fun at Geithner, including a segment last year about the Treasury secretary’s trouble selling his New York home.
There’s also this, of course:
A bit grayer and world wearier, maybe, but there’s no mistaking the family resemblance between NYSE Chief Operating Office Larry Leibowitz and his kid brother Jon Stewart. Unlike the Daily Show host, Leibowitz mostly keeps a low profile, although he did find himself in the spotlight even before his appearance at the Reuters Global Exchanges and Trading Summit on Monday. The Wall Street Journal interviewed him in a story about the NYSE’s effort to turn some high frequency traders — who have been chipping away at the exchange’s business — into exchange floor traders.
Which, for those fascinated by timelines and disbelieving in coincidences, appeared on Reuters’ website four days before TIm’s meeting with Jon: the Monday before their Friday meeting, in fact. Had Geithner found himself a back-channel to the COO of the New York Stock Exchange that wouldn’t require disclosure by either party?
Or does Tim simply value Jon Stewart’s economic advice?
49 Comments
Jon Stewart DOES understand more about the failed Obama foreclosure-relief extend-and-pretend policies than many other people on television, and he’s been consistently critical of them, but this just makes me wonder: why does our very busy Treasury Secretary have time to meet with a basic-cable comedy talk show host?
Hmmm.
Gee, they met only 26 days before a mini-flash crash, and a little over a month before the big flash crash on May 6th.
Huh.
I wonder how many Treasury, FED, and lobbyist 20 and 30 somethings attended and cheered Jon Stewart’s Rally For the Status Quo.
I wonder if his brother meets with drug lords to get that money into the nyse, like Anthony Grasso did before.
Where was “Stewart” on Prop 19 Did it even get a mention at the “sanity” rally
Check to see if Stewart had any meetings with the DEA on behalf of his brother.
Verrrrrrry interrrrrresting.
Richard Grasso, rather. From his Wiki:
“FARC controversy
On June 26, 1999, Reuters reported that Grasso met
with Colombian rebels, the FARC, in an article entitled
“NYSE Chief Meets Top Colombia Rebel Leader”. The
FARC is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.
State Department (on its list of Foreign Terrorist
Organizations) and is allegedly responsible for
kidnappings and narcotics trafficking in order to
bankroll their revolutionary activities (see:
narcoterrorism).
The article quoted Grasso as saying, “I invite
members of the FARC to visit the New York Stock
Exchange so that they can get to know the market
personally.” Some found the meeting inexplicable,
considering the FARC supports anti-capitalist ideals
and has no officially recognized financial clout.
Grasso told reporters that he was bringing “a
message of cooperation from U.S. financial
services.”[3]”
Wall St loves laundering drug money. Why take away 40% of the cartels’ income, especially when many of the smugglers were trained in America
Thanks for the sanity, Jon.
Why the surprise? They’re both members of the wealthy ruling caste, naturally they would meet. I’m one of those people who don’t like coincidences and I don’t trust people with money, no matter who they are or what they pretend to be.
http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/flash-crash
High Frequency Trading is the what all the fraudsters are using now. Computers are programmed to make automatic decisions on trading billions of dollars of people’s money. This does for financial investing what Computer voting did for stealing elections. It has already crashed the stock market once. AG Eric Holder is concealing Goldman Sachs fraud using high frequency trading.
Mystery solved
“NYSE Chief Operating Office Larry Leibowitz and his kid brother Jon Stewart”
Great catch. Stewart never hid his name change, but I knew nothing about the brother.
Kind of like finding out Anderson Cooper’s just happens to be Gloria Vanderbilt.
“Anderson Hays Vanderbilt Cooper was born on June 3, 1967,[1] the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, and is a great-great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt of the prominent Vanderbilt shipping and railroad fortune.[2] Cooper’s media experience began early. As a baby, he was photographed by Diane Arbus for Harper’s Bazaar.[3][4] At the age of three, Cooper was a guest on The Tonight Show on September 17, 1970, appearing with his mother.[5] From age 10 to 13, Cooper modeled with Ford Models for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Macy’s.[6]…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Cooper
Wow, did not know that about Stewart. That is a bit disturbing that his family has such close ties to Wall St.
[typo...Anderson Cooper’s mom just happens to be Gloria Vanderbilt]
Maybe Timmy went to Professor Jon for an econ 101 class.
Jon Stewarts explanation of the different banker accounting scams makes him sound like he knows a hell of a lot more than Timmy…or at least knows as much as Timmy and isn’t nearly as HAPPY about the scams.
Or maybe Timmy wanted to know why everyone thought he was an idiot who didn’t know his ass from his elbow and wanted Jon to explain in painful, soul destroying detail ala Jons crossfire appearance.
To be Devil Advocate for a moment… Nobody in the media ripped apart CNBC Business News practices like John Stewart did when he ripped apart one of the CNBC regulars.
I go with a back-channel communication to the COO of the NYSE.
Because the Obama administration ain’ nuthin’ but a comedy act?
Progressives and the Democratic Party
4 parts, about 40 min total.
Should be required viewing for anybody on the left.
When I had the tee vee I think I saw Stewart take on the loudmouth Cramer Mad Money guy. Cramer is definitely mad. He got even madder at John Stewart. Stewart also destroyed Tucker Carlson’s tee vee career. Now that I do not have cable tee vee I am much happier.
Well, shit. No edit link
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=74&jumival=520
Inside baseball what are you hinting at this is out of my level of expertise to comment on but I am not thrilled.
Limited Hangout.
Jon Stewart’s brother is an evil corporatist. No surprise. The rich elite work together to rob us. See, it really is a fight between the capitalist oink oinks and us wage slaves.
Let’s get on more important background check on this thread… Matt Taibbi.
Matthew C. “Matt” Taibbi (born March, 1970) is an American journalist. He currently works at Rolling Stone where he authors a column called “Road Rage” for the print version, and a weekly online column called “The Low Post”. He is best known for his coverage of the 2004 US presidential election, and for his former editorial positions at newspapers the eXile, the New York Press, and the Beast. In 2008 Taibbi was a regular contributor to Real Time with Bill Maher. In March 2009 he joined True/Slant as a blogger. In July 2009 he attracted attention for his Rolling Stone article on investment bank Goldman Sachs,[1] whom he accuses of helping engineer “every major market manipulation since the Great Depression.”
Taibbi spent his childhood in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Concord Academy and Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, then spent a year abroad at Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University. His father is Mike Taibbi, an NBC television reporter….”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Taibbi
Just getting the info out.
Veal pen for the left, handjobs for the right.
what does Matt have to do with this?
Ah yes, Richard Grasso. There’s money in sales, bless his heart.
Lovely photo about halfway down the page.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0202/S00069.htm
I agree with you
Obama got the call at 2am, and thus 17% un-employment in the USA
Anderson Cooper, CIA intern, Burma spectator, and curious Vietnam resident:
wonkette.com/198892/anderson-cooper-comes-in-from-the-cold
Always with the mysterious trips overseas.
Taibi to Russia after college, Bill Clinton to USSR after college, Obama to Pakistan at height of CIA orchesrated war.
W Bush had his weird little internships with CIA tied companies, and his father was in intelligence during ww2, before HIS father helped found and oversee the Agency.
Matt Taibbi is just another self-proclaimed outsider who actually went to prep school and started working in the family business, broadcast news.
That was the other reason I put Matt Taibbi up. Taibbi showed up as a “journalist” in St. Petersburg in 1991 months after wall fell, then shows Uzbekistan up in 1992, and then supposedly claims he’s… get this… “playing professional baseball in Ulan Bator, Mongolia”
Isn’t this the worst cover story you’ve ever heard in your life?
Stewart is alright, if you like smart compassionate people who fight stupidity and dullards with great humor. If you got for that kinda thing…
It’s doubtful they were discussing sausage making. Maybe it was personal, maybe something about medical confidences. Maybe it’s nobody else’s business. Maybe
they both tried Abbie Hoffman’s recipe for gefilte fish @
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/04/abbie_hoffman_m.html
but couldn’t get it right.
Plenty o people have a sibling that is not the same.
Sorry to say, but Lame Comment!
Get a show, go do work for many and come back and make that comment.
PS. Hope you love your take out dinner.
Jon “Stewart” has become unbearable. His sucking up to Chris Wallace last night was pathetic. I wasn’t aware about his family ties to Wall Street, but now it makes sense.
Ever get the feeling Rahm did more than fix jeeps in Israel before returning and becoming Clinton’s extraordinarily successful bag man
Mega was never identified. Investigation aborted.
The transcript of Stewart/Geithner meeting could read completely empty of suspicious dialogue, but the meeting will affect coverage anyway.
It’s harder to be real critical of someone you’ve sat down and talked to. That’s just the way people usually work. I guess I don’t need to point out it’s even tougher to be rough of your brother
That’s why Stewart needed to disclose the meeting with Geithnerand Stewart REALLY needed to disclose his brother’s position.
Wait, what?
Let’s not jump to conclusions – Geithner probably needed to get more financial advice from Stewart. God knows he’s turned Treasury into a joke, and Stewart is good at comedy.
While I’m still troubled about Stewart’s relation to NYSE, didn’t the WH make a point to reach out to progressive radio/TV personalities a few times over the past few years, having private off the record meetings with them?
Don’t know if you listen to Thom Hartman (I try not to), but I remember sometime during the Spring or Summer he was all gushing about going to meet with the White House from like a Wednesday through Friday a while back.
Wonder if Stewart couldn’t be troubled, so they went to him?
Tried to kiss the progressive media’s ass to get them to say nice things?
I don’t care if they meet. I care if they meet in secret.
I read the diary, I read the comments.
Teddy, spell it out, what are your positions and thoughts on your own diary?
I haven’t a clue as to what all this shit is about, not the diary and not the comments.
A lil final wrap summary for us more pedestrian fans of yerxs?
*G*
In English?
Nice to see other people talking about drug money laundered through the Wall Street branches of the drug cartels.
Don’t worry, Margaret, they don’t trust you either, like they don’t trust many of us or they’d let us play with their toys for eight hours.
Kind of explains all those appearances by Bill Kristol, John McCain, and other right-wing propaganda meisters. Why would I want to listen to someone like Douglas Feith pimping a book?
When is Dubya scheduled?
Have you ever even read the eXile? The work Matt and Mark Ames did in Yeltsin-era Moscow was excellent and their willingness to take on the mafiya and the oligarchs when people were getting killed in the streets for such things deserves kudos.
I never heard anyone berating William Sloane Coffin for being a member of Skull & Bones. At least Matt worked more for his positions than Luke Russert who basically just had to wait for Timeeeh to stop breathing to get his job.
I agree with Adam503 the visit was probably to help neuter Stewart’s criticisms, but there was the added bonus for the WH of outing Jon’s wall st. connection/taint. I wonder who talked to Bloomberg 1st? & did Timmeh actually think up this payback? It’s hard to believe he could come up with such an original thought.
Regarding AC, #5 explains a great deal.
thanks for the link. it’s a fascinating set of videos.
It’s listed in Geithner’s schedule as “off-the-record meeting”.
That would mean that Stewart had to have agreed to keep whatever they talked about off-the-record when the meeting was set up.