The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Debt to America! Jon Covers the Financial Crisis Part II | TDS Time Machine

Episode Date: September 23, 2023

The Daily Show time travels back to this day in 2008: The Secretary of Treasury had just proposed a $700 billion economic recovery plan to bail out the failing banking industry, causing outrage from American taxpayers. Jon Stewart is joined by John Oliver for an analysis on how dire the situation could get, and President Clinton sits down with Jon to break down why Americans are upset, and what the federal government could be doing instead of writing a blank check to the banks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, the weekly show. It's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGID. Thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday?

I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to Comedy Central. September 23rd, 2008. From Comedy Central, the news, headquarters in New York. This is the Daily Show. My name is John Stewart. What a program for you tonight. Former President Bill Clinton will be our guest tonight. told you, to the night.

Former President Bill Clinton will be our guest tonight. He'll be here on the show. Hey, do you guys see Letterman last night? He, um... He, uh, uh. Hey, do you guys see Letterman last night? He, um... I'm in Los Angeles at the Emmy Awards. By the way, we won another little Emmy there last night.

I have a staff and crew here. Everybody here, I'm so proud of them. So proud to everybody that works here, just putting so much effort. I was so glad to see that pay off. But I was coming back on the plane there and then I have little children, so I helped put them to bed. So I didn't see it.

But I heard, you know, the guy in the audience that he was on and then Chris Rock was on and Chris Rock said funny things and then... After that I just started getting dizzy you know and everything got real dark but uh... either way we got a big show for you tonight, and the big story continues to be economic meltdown. For anybody out there who's been living in a cave, let me just say this, congratulations.

You've apparently made the soundest real estate investment possible. Once again, Bin Laden wins. With Wall Street in shambles, Frankensteinian Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has ridden to the rescue with a brilliant plan. The federal government's $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry. Seven hundred billion dollars of your money. Seven hundred billion dollars. Seven hundred billion dollars. Obviously is a lot of money. But it's also as American

as apple pie. McDonald's apple pie, that is, 2,000 of them. That's how much $700 billion would buy for every single American. Oh now I understand. How powerful is a hydrogen bomb? Well, let's put it in terms of tacos. Geez. the $700 billion is a hydrogen bomb? Well, let's put it in terms of tacos. Geez, $700 billion is an awful lot of money. Do you think Paulson will take it? Well, he will, but only under certain conditions. For Secretary Paulson to accept our money, his decisions must be, quote, non-reviewable and

committed to agency discretion and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency. And we must allow him to wear a cape. And we must address him only as Baron von Moneypants. And on your wedding night, he must be the first to deflower your bride. Basically, it's the Carter administration all over again. Look, before we hand this monster-esque, unelected official, 700 billion no-strings-attached dollars,

there is one thing you should know. This financial guru never saw it coming. I've got great confidence in our financial market, our financial institutions. Our markets are resilient, they're flexible, our institutions, our banks and investment banks are strong. Foresight! It's his Achilles head. It's his Achilles head.

All right, before we make this decision, let's hear from Paulson's supervisor. He's the CEO president. He's got an MBA from Harvard Business School. It turns out that there's a lot of inner links throughout the financial system. Whoa! Slow down Greenspan. Wow. I mean that went. Actually, the interlinks was one of the major themes of Bush's Harvard thesis, supply and demand. So you've discovered that our financial systems are connected. Is

there a metaphor that you could use Mr. President that would inspire even less confidence? And then obviously AIG came along and and Lehman came along and it was declared bankruptcy then AIG came along and it uh... The House of Cards was much bigger and so when one card started to go we were worried about the whole deck going down. House of Cards. Oh yeah, Mr. President, the problem with your financial house is right over here. The walls are made completely out of playing cards. Yeah.

For example, right over here there we should have a low-bearing stud there, you have a, it looks like a six-pack It's very clear here. The walls are made completely out of playing cards. Yeah. For example, right over here there, we should have a low-bearing stud there. You have a, looks like a six of clubs. I would recommend Wood or Steel, or at least a face card. No disrespect, how you doing? But none of this really explains why our invisible hand-loving president now wants to use the red hand of Lenin. Well, my first instinct wasn't to, you know, lay out a huge government plan.

My first instinct was to shotgun five core silver bullets. I've got to fight that one day at a time. So the president wants to make one thing clear. His core principles of free market can create these problems, they're not so helpful in the fixing department. My first instinct was to let the market work until I realized that upon being briefed by the experts, of how significant this problem became.

It's like normally I pray to Jesus. But in this case upon being briefed by the experts, hail Satan. For more on this return to senior analyst John Oliver. John thanks very much for joining us. This is a stunning, stunning display. For this administration, for this administration, after Katrina, after Iraq. Gwantanamo boy. Yes, that also put after Katrina, after Iraq. Uh, Guantanamo Bay? Yes, that also put us in a difficult situation.

How about the politicization of our nation's judicial system? Yes, the draconian secrecy. Yes, okay, my point is this. I didn't think there was another area that these guys could screw up. I know. And it wasn't easy. And it wasn't easy. It was like finding a vane the thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thane thiane thiane my thi. thia' thia' thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. My thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. My screw up. I know. And it wasn't easy. It was like finding a vein on a failure junkie. So is this, I understand that's, once the veins collapse, it's difficult. It's very hard. Is this economic crisis then sort of the turd icing on this administration's cake if you will. Okay two things one that was classy and and two don't count them

out John it's a long way to January so there's you think there's more out there what is left for them to... Decomplish, if you will? Well, let's see. Do you still have a home? Yes. Well, there you go. Did your children have breakfast this morning?

They did. They had a good breakfast. Was it something they found in the street? No, it was not. All right, but you're saying the president here won't be satisfied until American children are eating roadkill. Until they're fighting over roadkill. Until roadkill is the prize for the strongest American children. But... Why? Legacy, John? Look, we all know he'll never be ranked as the best president.

But he could still, if he works hard enough, be the worst? The last. John Oliver. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls?

We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back, my guest tonight, a two-term president of these United States. His Clinton Global Initiative kicks off its annual meeting tomorrow, September 24th. Please welcome back to the show, President Bill Clinton. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us.

Nice to see you again. Thank you for joining us. Nice to see you again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very excited. Let me ask you, you know, I know that presidential legacy is an important thing. Are you grateful to this president?

Let me ask you, you know, I know that presidential legacy is an important thing. Are you grateful to this president? Actually, I was thinking about how, now that you've shown me the light, if I were there I'd spend this $700 billion for 2,000 pies for every year. I never realized that option was out there. That's, I want to thank you. The first one you burn the roof of your mouth, but you learn. By pie 350, you learn. Is it it?

If you eat 350, you won't care that you don't own a home anymore. You'll be so full, or you could just build an apartment building out of pies and live in there and they heat themselves. Here's what's difficult for me to understand. The president says, boy this problem is so big that I need 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money to save us. I've never normally do this. I'm a free market guy. But he rails on if you want to give health insurance to kids without it, that's socialism. Does he have a functioning,

the cognitive dissonance? We ought to say, okay, you want us to put up the 700 billion, here are the conditions. Number one, there has to be an effort to, there ought to be a moratorium on home mortgage foreclosures and every single one of these mortgages ought to be reviewed. And if you can write them down a little bit and somebody can make the payment, that will cost the taxpayers less and the economy less than a foreclosure. So first, rewrite it. That's what we did in the depression. It actually made money for the taxpayers. By the way, when I loaned Mexico, you mone that? They paid it back early with a $600 million profit.

So that's the second criteria. The one thing that the government did that I liked in the last few days, when they helped AIG, when they loaned the money, when they helped AIG, when they loaned the money to loan the money. They took an 80% ownership share. They loaned the money at interest. It was a very high interest rate. They're going to make profits. The second thing we ought to say is, look,

you want to take all of our money as taxpayers and help these people get through a rough spot, fine. You either got a loan the money no interest, then you have to get a piece of the upside. You get a percentage of the profit that goes back to the taxpayers. Now, is that nationalization? Are we now France then? No, but it's a heavier involvement of the government. But it's what happened because we had too much speculation too long. Does anyone see this coming? You're in cabinet meetings? You held cabinet meetings, does the Treasury Secretary in a meeting go, oh, before we go, I just want to mention real quick,

you know those banks, yet they don't have any more money. Well, they should have, because all markets play out. This all started because you had too much money, and the only place it could make money was in housing. If you remember, in my second term, we had lots of jobs in part because all these high-tech industries were booming. So like every boom, it led to a downturn. When the downturn occurred, the Federal Reserve left a lot of money in America, but the only thing was then making money was housing. 2001. The fundamental, this

is why this presidential election is important folks, not to find evildoers but growth. In 2001, all this money was out there and it all went into houses and construction. So we had to keep finding funny ways to have more houses, like the subprime mortgages or the derivatives. What if we had put a lot of this money into solar energy, into wind energy, into a hybrid vehicle, and all these things, making all of our cities as energy efficient as possible? We would have created millions of jobs, raised incomes, had

the revenues to provide health care to everybody, and there would have been competition for investment. You're just talking like a crazy person now. I'll tell you, you've got, all I'm saying is, how much would you win? If we held a presidential race today, how many, what do you think you'd win by? No. For real, don't you think, don't you think, in went up against him, you would you would pretty much crush him. Well I think about it.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The most important thing is Barack Obama's going to win. I think Obama's going to win. Our party is going to win this presidential race. Let me be right back more with that place. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election earnings calls.

What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart wherever you get your podcast. You know, I want to talk about, you mentioned one of the parts of this bailout that you think is important. Bill Clinton. We're discussing, uh, I want to talk about you mentioned one of the parts of this, uh, bailout that you thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi. thi, the the the the the the the the thi, the thi, the thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. to to to to to tooi. tooi. tooi. to toeeeeeeea. to to too. to to theee. thi. thi. the thi, th I want to talk about, you mentioned one of the parts of this bailout that you think is important as congressional oversight. Can the Democratic Congress have that oversight and do it effectively?

Because the difference between, let's say, the Republican Congress in 94 that you were up against, they seemed focused, they had an ability to challenge you, they had an ability to try and rein in what they thoult was an opposite the opposite the opposite the opposite the opposite the opposite thi opposite thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. thi.a.a.a. thi. thi. thi. thi ability to challenge you. They had an ability to try and rein in what they thought was an opposite ideology. This Democratic Congress seems unable to mount a meaningful challenge. Well I think they, first let's give them credit. They have, they have passed a lot of progressive legislation in education that raised minimum wage. They did a lot of other things. They're going to pass a good energy bill here. I think they pass one that was pretty good before, but they're going to pass a better one, I think, now. Now here's the problem they have.

The president can veto what they pass and they don't have a veto-proof margin. When New Gingrich Congress was elected, They were in a very different frame of mind. They wanted to do things and they knew I could stop them. But they also wanted to just say no to me and they hadn't had a majority in decades. So I would say Newt was a better, not better is the wrong word, but a clearer. Even now you can't bring yourself. No, I mean, I get along with him fine, but I never had any doubt what it happened to me if I got caught alone in a dark alley, but they, but he was smart and articulate and forceful, but there was a lot of appeal then to this

hardcore right-wing rhetoric. But with everything going on, does it surprise you, does it stun you with the dire consequences of all these things that this election apparently is taken us all the way back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back back to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the to. to to to the to to to to to, the to, to, to, to to, the the the the to, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the, the the, the the, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. I, the the the thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. te. te. te. te. te. toe. to. to. consequences of all these things, that this election apparently is taking us all the way back to 1968 and Nixonian and McGovern culture divide. It's once again the left demonizing the right for narrow-mindedness and the right demonizing the left for elitism. And it almost seems like a repeat of this same movie that we keep seeing. Yeah, and I think, as you know, I think it's a mistake. That is, I think for Senator Obama, I told you before, I think he'll win. I think you'll win because I think he's run a responsive campaign to the issues. I think he's intelligent. I think he's really tried to come to grips with, like this financial crisis here, he's tried to come up with answers.

And I think that the economy's in trouble, two-thirds of the American people having trouble paying their bills. Demographically, the country's moving toward us and greater diversity. Enthusiastically, there are more Democratic new voters than Republican ones. And he's very thiii seen and as I saw in the primary. So I think so I'll be surprised really surprised if he doesn't win but you should understand that that we all vote for a whole welter of different reasons and you shouldn't be surprised that a lot of young people and people immigrants and identify with Senator Obama you shouldn't be

surprised at a lot of Vietnam veterans and older identify with John McCain and the extraordinary sacrifice. I'm never surprised that they identify. I'm always surprised that the conversation is a lot. That the conversation is dominated in the media and everything else. But if you go back to the speech that Hillary gave in a speech I gave in Denver, we tried to stop that. That is because what what what's the conversation the conversation that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that the the conversation that that the conversation that that the conversation that that the conversation that the conversation the conversation is the conversation. That's that's the conversation. that's that's that's that that that that's that's that's that's that's that that that that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their the the the the the the the th.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.v.v.v.v. that's. that's.v. that's. th. th. go back to the speech that Hillary gave in a speech I gave in Denver, we tried to stop that. That is because what Senator Obama... But even that's a great example.

And the media narrative for both of those was, did Hillary say enough to thioe, did thiiola enough love? Did Bill Clinton show Obama enough love? The whole thing was not about what you said, tho, it, it, it, tha, tha, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, that's, that's, that's, but, but, that's, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's a that's a that's a that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great, that's a great, that's a great, that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great that's a great, Even this guy, I had some guy in the audience, said to me, did you see him on Letterman? I don't know if he really endorsed Obama. Unless you get a tattoo, you may have to get a tattoo or some type of permanent bumper sticker. All I can say is, I'm glad he's got people that love him that much. But those are not the people that hold this election. The people that hold this election are th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A th. A thi. A. A. A. A. A. th. thi. thi. Did, thi. thi. tho. tho, the tho, they, their, their, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, their, their, their, th. Did, th. Did, th. Did, th. Did, th. Did, th. Did, th. Did, th. Did, thee. Did, thi. Did, thi. Did, they. Did, they. Did, they. Did, they. Did you. Did you. Did you. Did you. Did you. Did you. Did the the the they. Did, they. Did people that hold this election. The people that hold this election are the people that think that he is on their side and he loves them. In other words, he needs to get the votes of the people that voted for Hillary or

our independents didn't even vote. But they know the country and what Hillary tried to do in Denver was to say, listen, this is not about people's personal feelings, this is about which president is on your side. Who is in there for you and your family and your children and your future? Who is going to restore the American dream at home, who is going to restore our country's position for peace and prosperity and harmony throughout the world? If you look at that we, she and I have th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. the the th. th. the th. th. th. the th. th. th. the the, th. the the, th. th. the the the the, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I, th. I, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thean. I, thean. thean. tean. tean. tean. tean. tean. thean. thean. thean. thean. the. I world. If you look at that, we, she and I have concluded, that even though we actually have had a long and good relationship with Senator McCain, we admire him, it's no, there's no question that if you vote for Senator Obama and Senator Biden, you'll get better economic results,

broader, shared prosperity, fewer of these headache problems, and a better position the world. That's what we believe. And I think that's the ground on which you want to fight the election. Look, the purpose of this election is not for people to pass emotional hurdle tests. You know, this is not a Rorschach test. This is about winning an election that can change the future of the country by giving it back to the American people. That's actually very powerful. Let me just find this out. Is that doing? Are you sold yet? All right. Now he feels better. He feels better now. I'll say this. Just one thing since you mentioned that. I'm doing this global initiative, and then I'm going out. Hillary has already done more for Senator Obama than all the runners up in the Democrat nominated process in the last 40 years combined.

Jerk combined. No, not jerk. No, not jerk, but let's get real here. The purpose of this election is to win. We need to do what gets votes. We already got all the people that love us on this side. We got to get some others. Let me just say it.

And we got to love them, not expect them to love us. That really hurt my arm. President Bill Clinton. President Bill Clinton. That's our show, join us tomorrow night at 11. Here it is, your moment is in. And the Average family, we weren't going to let that happen. You want to call on somebody? Uh, I never choose the... You never choose the questioner?

I will. But, but, here I have to do this. Well, I'll be glad to do that. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcast. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election. Earnings calls.

What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast.