"Goldman Sachs is responsible"

By GottaLaff

I was listening to the Thom Hartmann Show today, and he had Dr. Ravi Batra on. Batra blamed Goldman Sachs for the economic crisis. As I recall, Matt Taibbi wrote a substantial article expressing similar sentiments. Batra's prediction for the economy? Long term: Very optimistic. Short term: After about a month of better news, we'll go into a Depression. Unemployment, unemployment, unemployment, plus same ol', same ol' seemed to be Batra's message, from the tiny bit I heard.

Now this:

Newsweek: "Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have reported huge profits, the Dow has made it past 9000, and Barack Obama has moved on to health care. The horror show seems to be over. But as in one of those clichéd Hollywood endings, the monster in this story isn't really dead, even if most people think he is. Lost amid all the premature self-congratulation is the fact that the deepest underlying problem that caused the financial disaster is not being solved."

I smell a consensus.

Jim Cramer: "We are done with the depression"

By GottaLaff

Jim Cramer, on Hardball just now, came right out and said without reservation:

"We are done with the depression... It's just over!"

Dr. Ravi Batra begs to differ.

Oh, wait. What's that? Cramer just amended his statement:

"I said we were out of the depression. We're not out of the recession. I don't want to take that off the table... We're no longer in a 1929 scenario."

Glad he cleared that right up. Go for it, Jon Stewart. Make our day.