I‘ve been trying to enjoy the little culture skirmish that surfaced last week as media watchdog Jon Stewart of the Comedy Central took comedian Jim Cramer of CNBC to task for failing to warn the public that the valuation of houses, equities, municipal bonds, commodities, and every other financial asset in the global economy had gone bubblistic. (Video of their on-air confrontation here – in multiple segments.)
This story (the pointless media dust-up, not the dramatic global asset devaluation) was important enough to be covered on virtually every public affairs TV show over the weekend. From my casual observation, the common sense response came from George Will on ABC’s This Week (starts at 3:33 from the end). Marveling at the idea that anyone could mistake Cramer for an objective journalist, he offered three bits of folksy wisdom:
- Never play poker with a guy named “Slim”
- Don’t buy a Rolex from a guy who is out of breath
- Don’t take stock tips from a man that is shouting
Words to live by…
During his 30-year career in financial services, Bryan has developed new strategies and innovative business models for banking technologies ranging from mobile payments deployment and online payment security to remote ATM operations and healthcare payments. Before becoming managing partner at Glenbrook, Bryan served as vice president of strategic development for Cyota and worked for First Data Corporation (FDC) as senior vice president for deposit access products at First Data Merchant Services.
Earlier in his career, Bryan established the Electronic Banking Division as a senior vice president at NatWest Bancorp in New York and worked as chief financial officer and head of strategic planning for NatWest’s retail bank. He performed similar duties within Citibank. Bryan began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he managed strategy development engagements for large financial institutions. He also worked as an equity research analyst covering large capitalization bank stocks at Morgan Stanley.