I studiously avoid watching Jim Cramer. It’s not that he’s a stupid man, he’s a very smart man. It’s not that he isn’t a successful man, he a very successful. It’s not that he makes bad calls. Well, it’s not solely that he makes bad calls.
It’s that he’s an insufferable jackass.
So last night he’s on his show, trying to convince his viewers not to panic and to stay with stocks, and he rips Kelly Evans over her Ahead of the Tape column yesterday about auto-parts stores. Now, whether or not Kelly’s right or wrong can’t be decided in one day. Whether or not anybody who writes a column or hosts a show for a living can ever be 100% right isn’t the point either.
It’s not the shot at Kelly that got me. It was the shot at his viewers’ intelligence.
So, here’s Cramer, a guy who as you’ll see momentarily has been massively wrong in the past. Not just wrong, but spectacularly, historically wrong, and he’s on cable TV last night telling people to keep buying stocks:
Despite all the worry, staying in stocks has been the right move every step of the way, and not panicking out on the big down days. No one ever made a dime panicking.
Now, he’s right about the panicking bit. He’s also right about the staying in stocks bit…if the world started turning on its axis two years ago. But it didn’t. Stocks have been a bad, bad bet over the past 12 years, and they are very likely to be a bad bet for the next four or five years.
Look, somewhere, there is some genius who got out in October 2007 and got back in in March 2009 and made a killing. But most people “in the market” are just getting jerked around, and Cramer’s one of the hacks pulling the chain. Continue reading…
With the Dow crossing 12000 and the S&P 500 poised at 1300, and commodities across the globe on a tear, we leave it to Gluskin Sheff’s David Rosenberg to put things in perspective. We pick this up from Rosenberg’s daily commentary, right after he noted that some retailers are sounding a bit panicky.
We’ll tell you someone who isn’t panicky at all. His name is Ben Bernanke. He runs the nation’s printing press, and he is one cool customer. His nickname is Helicopter Ben. We’ll call him HB for short.
We just saw in the King Report that HB gave an interview on CNBC last Thursday when he was queried about the success of QE2, especially since bond yields and mortgage rates have gone up substantially in recent months. Here was his response:
“Policies have contributed to a stronger stock market just as they did in March 2009, when we did the last iteration of this. The S&P 500 is up 20%-plus and the Russell 2000, which is about small cap stocks, is up 30%-plus.”
Well, there you have it. When you have a central bank chief talking about the virtues of small-cap stocks, you know you really have a pro looking after the country’s monetary affairs. One has to wonder whether Cramer will end up on the short list for HB’s replacement when the time comes. So what we have is a Fed that is now targeting the stock market and engaging in some form of manipulation to invite the same speculative risky behaviour that has ended so badly in the past. But make no mistake, HB is spiking the Kool-Aid in a significant way and it is working for now. So the Bernanke put is really an extension of the old Greenspan put, but with just a different strike price.
Jim Cramer for Fed chair. That’s the quote of the day, right there. Boo-yah!
Posted by Paul Vignaon April 08, 2010 Markets, Media /
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Hat tip to Josh Brown over at Reformed Broker for pointing this one out, the laugh of the day (don’t worry about those jobless claims; Cesar Chavez Day don’tcha know.)
Posted by Steven Russolilloon June 17, 2009 Economy, Housing /
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This thing turns around, we'll never be able to buy the house.
The blogosphere has a lot to say about Jim Cramer’s latest housing-bottom call.
The host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” show saidyesterday that rising housing starts and permits prove the glut of excess inventory is finally waning. He says ramping sales and falling prices during last three months are reasons to believe housing has bottomed out.
But Calculated Risk reminds that nearly every housing bust has two distinct bottoms: the first for activity and second for prices.
“Maybe this time is different, but I think Cramer is confusing activity for price,” blog says.
J.P. Morgan reported some strong earnings today. But what this bloggers eye were some of the sub-numbers in the earnings report. The bank booked $1.8 billion in investment banking fees. But don’t be fooled – that wasn’t from big M&A advising. But $429 million was in advisory fees. Instead, that $1.3 billion + remaining fees […]
The bridge that collapsed on Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington was listed as “functionally obsolete” and “fracture critical,” which means the whole sha-bang could come tumbling down if one major part fails. Click here to read the details from USAToday. This sort of thing shouldn’t be happening in a modern, developed nation. Barry LePatn […]
