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The Last Word's Lawrence O'Donnell got his shots in at Fox and their joke of a business channel and the likes of Stuart Varney, who was previously claiming that the election of President Obama was responsible for the dip in the stock market the day after the election. With the markets reaching a record high this week, as O'Donnell rightfully noted here, those talking heads are just as clueless now about why the market went up as they were when it went down last year.

I'm not sure who actually watches the Fox Business Channel, but sometimes I wonder if they exist solely as an attempt to make CNBC look respectable in comparison.

This has to be one of the most disgusting things I've watched in a long time. If anyone was wondering what network out there might be worse than the hacks on Fox over this "fiscal cliff" fearmongering, I think you just got your answer -- CNBC.

Anchor Accuses Top House Progressive Of Tanking Markets By Appearing On CNBC:

At around 3:30 PM Eastern Tuesday, CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera noted a sell-off in the stock market, an entirely unremarkable occurrence in the course of the financial network’s daily coverage. But what separated this particular sell-off from others, according to Caruso-Cabrera, was that it could be traced directly to the appearance of one of the House’s top progressives on her show.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) tanked the market, she said, by refusing to budge on his contention that Medicare cuts should be off the table in negotiations surrounding the so-called fiscal cliff. Democrats accused the anchor of trying to “shame” them into cutting entitlement cuts by directly blaming Grijalva’s words for the market’s decline.

Grijalva, co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus, appeared on CNBC to talk about the debt talks and his view that it was unfair to talk about Medicare and other entitlement programs when Republicans remain publicly unwilling to significantly increase government revenues.

Caruso-Cabrera said Grijalva’s words were literally hurting the economy in real time. It’s something that’s happened before when members of Congress appear on the air, she added.

“Representative? You know what, as we’re talking the market is selling off once again,” she told Grijalva. “Every time members of Congress come on, and I’ve got to tell you sir, I think you’re contributing to the fears that we’re going off the fiscal cliff because it doesn’t sound like there’s any compromise in what you’re saying. Do you care that markets are selling off dramatically when it looks like you guys can’t come to a deal?”

As the interview ended, Caruso-Cabrera noted that the market had gone down “80 points” on the day at that point. Read on...

Update: Here's more from Digby: And they don't even have to be virgins.

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Matt Taibbi sat down with Current TV's Eliot Spitzer to discuss the bipartisan debacle just passed by the Congress and signed by President Obama last week called the JOBS Act and the potential political fallout if this is made into an issue in the upcoming presidential campaign.

Our own Jon Perr has been writing about what a terrible bill this was from the time it was introduced, when Eric Cantor was first pushing it on Fox News. Sadly, as Taibbi and Spitzer pointed out in the segment above, the law is going to effectively repeal about half of the meaningful rules that were put in place to prevent another bubble and all this did was take away what competitive advantage the stock market had in the United States because investors felt they could trust they were being told the truth about the companies they were investing in and their accounting methods.

Matt has more in his recent article at Rolling Stone here -- Why Obama's JOBS Act Couldn't Suck Worse:

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I've heard Allen West say a lot of mind numbingly stupid things in the past, but this latest is right up there with some of the most ridiculous. Here he is on Neil Cavuto's show with his explanation for why the markets are up.

Allen West Says Future Republican President Should Get Credit For Today’s Stock Market Gains:

The Nasdaq topped 3,000 today for the first time since 2000 and the Dow finished strong, up 217 points at 13,177 — its highest level since the end of 2007.

But on Fox News this afternoon, West said the markets were only up because traders think Republicans will win big in November. Host Neil Cavuto seemed taken aback by the suggestion and pressed West for clarification, but the Congressman stood by his claim:

CAVUTO: What do you think about that? That the markets say you’re wrong, that the pick up is alive and well.

WEST: Well, I would think maybe the markets are maybe looking five to six months down the road, when we have a change in leadership in this country –

CAVUTO: Wait a minute, you think that this is built on a Republican either capturing the White House or Republicans capturing the Senate? … That might or might not be a stretch, but it is out there as a factor. You think that’s a genuine factor? You think that the markets are getting bubbly in anticipation of a Republican taking the White House?

WEST: Oh, absolutely. Well, I think that there is a hope that may be out there, is that we can get a person that has practical viable solutions for job creation here in the Unite States of America [in the presidency].

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Impending economic Armageddon is apparently a great time to make money. This clip from the BBC will likely leave you as gobsmacked as it did me.

via the International Business Times:

Stock market trader Alessio Rastani commented on the current economic crisis to the BBC on Monday, saying, "Governments don't rule the world" but rather Goldman Sachs does and he "dreams of another recession."

"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani told the BBC. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."

In a candid interview about the Eurozone rescue plan, Rastani said the market is ruled by fear and cannot be saved by the rescue plan.

"They know the stock market is toast," he said. "They know the stock market is finished."

Rastani said most investors are moving their money to places it would be more safe, like U.S. treasuries and the dollar, as they simply do not care about the state of the economy but rather about their own pockets.

"Personally it doesn't matter," he said. "See I'm a trader. I don't really care about that kind of stuff. If I see an opportunity to make money, I go with that."

Rastani continued on to say that most other traders, like him, are not interested in the climate of the economy but only care about making money.

"For most traders...we don't really care that much about how they're going to fix the economy, how they're going to fix the whole situation," Rastani said. "Our job is to make money from it."

Finding optimism in a grim situation, Rastani said he's been "dreaming" of this moment for years.

"I go to bed every night, I dream of another recession," he said.

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Sen. Dick Durbin warned Bob Schieffer on CBS's Face the Nation that if the Congress did not come to some sort of agreement on raising the debt limit by today, Sunday, they're risking hitting a tipping point where the bond markets start reacting. Durbin also warned against just doing a short term extension and putting us through all of this dangerous nonsense again in a few months.

DURBIN: Well, we absolutely do not want to default, but this notion that we're going to replay this movie in four or five months, that we're going to face this whole thing all over again, the American economy is too fragile at this point in recovery for us to allow that to happen. We've been warned, not by political advisers. I hear the Republicans, they want to make this a campaign issue. Ignore the political advisers for a moment. Listen to the economists who are telling us, all of us together, do not lurch from one five month period to another when it comes to the credit rating of the United States of America. Not at this moment in history. It's going to hurt us. It's going to stall our recovery. And I might say to Speaker Boehner, he should remember six words. If you break it, you own it. […]

Tim Geithner, our Secretary of the Treasury, has warned us that at some moment, there's a tipping point here. These political negotiations will go on too long and people will start paying the price. And it won't just be the politicians. It's going to be the average working family in America, the average business that'll face this new burden from this failure to reach an agreement that they are all going to sense and feel. They're going to see in their savings a reduction in value, I'm afraid if we don't extend the debt ceiling. That's why it's critical for us to reach an agreement today.

I'm wondering if they've already messed around for too long because the market downturn could start when the Asian markets open up this evening.

UPDATED: John Amato via The Note:

Asian markets? They are on their own. A Republican source tells ABC News negotiators do not expect to have a deal or even the framework of a deal on the debt ceiling by 4 p.m. today, as House Speaker John Boehner had said he wanted to steady jittery Asian markets when they open.

In fact, the source says a deal today is now looking unlikely.

The principals are speaking over the phone while the staffs work on the numbers. Congressional Democrats and Republicans continue to try to hash out a compromise, but they are not there yet.

Separately, the source says that the big "grand bargain" now looks, once again, to be "pretty dead" -- not buried yet, but not really breathing either. Despite the positive comments by Boehner and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner this morning, the large deficit reduction plan seems to be too much, too late to accomplish by the Aug. 2 deadline.

"A deal is still elusive," said one top House Republican.

This should have been a clean vote and always has been except there's a Democratic president now so if a Grand Bargain is off and our safety net benefits are not slashed, that's all well and good for me.

(I changed the title of the past to reflect the new information)

Via Media Matters--"Pelosi Politburo emasculation": CNBC's Cramer predicts "gigantic rally off a Coakley loss". Since this guy is wrong about everything I guess we can predict a blowout by Martha Coakley now, right?

Just for a little trip down memory lane, here's Jon Stewart taking him apart last March--Jon Stewart creams Jim Cramer on the Daily Show.

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For anyone who hasn't seen this, I thought it was worth sharing. From Alan Grayson's You Tube page "Rep. Alan Grayson asking Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez about the Fed's independence" on Sept. 25, 2009.

Also there is a really wonderful diary up at Daily KOS by davidkc with more on Grayson's background. I highly recommend reading it-- Alan Grayson Shows Dems How to Play Hardball.

The more I read about this man, the more I like him. As the KOS diary points to, the St. Petersburg Times published a lengthy profile of Congressman Grayson and here are a few portions that I thought were worth sharing.

But a leading opponent has not yet emerged, and Grayson, the 12th-wealthiest member of Congress, has resources to defend himself. He spent $2 million of his own money on the 2008 campaign. (The "die quickly" speech has triggered $150,000 in contributions, his office says.) And his district has shifted from slightly Republican to slightly Democratic.

"It's no coincidence the National Republican Congressional Committee has named me as the No. 1 target next year," Grayson said. "We're working hard, getting things done."

Swagger courses through Grayson's every word, delivered in the accent of his Bronx upbringing and with the exacting nature of a lawyer who first made his name taking on — and taking down — contractors and war profiteers in Iraq.

"I don't need the job for income or satisfaction," said Grayson, sitting on a bench outside the House chamber in between votes. "The truth is, it's really a hardship. I took an enormous pay cut to take the job. Every week, I leave five young children and my wife to come up here.

"I don't owe anything to anyone here. I don't owe anything to lobbyists. I don't owe anything to leadership. The only thing I owe to anybody is the well-being of 800,000 people who depend on me."

[....]

That self-assurance is best captured on the Financial Services Committee, where he has aggressively interrogated Federal Reserve officials and financial executives on federal bailouts and the economic morass.

In a memorable exchange, Grayson laughs at Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as he tries to explain why the government would loan $500 billion to foreign banks.

The performances have made Grayson an Internet sensation, a champion for a public buried under credit card debt and foreclosures. "Alan Grayson. Wow," wrote a commenter on a YouTube video of him questioning Bernanke. "The only thing that would make this video better is if Grayson body-slammed Bernanke through a hardwood table."

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