I know, I know, Jim Cramer (JC--I wonder if he thinks he's a financial messiagh...) is not worth a retort. However, living in Oklahoma I have to deal with all the Rushpublicans who love to use this kind of JC tripe as a type of trump card to slam Dems/Libs/Pros.
My boss sent me this link and asked I "read to the end to get the gist" because he was "inclined to agree." Well, boss-man, since I can't reply to you first because you took today off work, I figured I'd run my email response by the DKos commune to see what pearl's-o-wisdom they would profer.
JC's WH reponse article: Cramer: My Response to the White House
My email reply to the boss-man (playful jab, we have differing politics but get along great--which I think reflects most of America):
"Cramer is a bump & dump CNBC hack who’s been through a SEC investigation and is under SEC subpoena (Jim Cramer: Here's how to cheat). Several sites (e.g. stockTagger) ridicule Cramer’s record on calling stocks. But, Cramer is loud & proud and makes for good TV segments, so he stays popular in the media. A few points on this screed where Cramer:
- defends Trickle-Down ('we need [the rich] to spend and build new businesses'–didn’t this theory just have an EPIC FAIL, and what about the other 95% of America???)
- claims Pres. Obama has 'made things worse by creating an atmosphere of fear and panic' (a March 3rd NBC/WSJ poll found the POTUS has a 68% favorable rating & 67% 'feel more hopeful')
- Tries to blame the 401k losses on Obama (last I checked the stock market has been in decline since 2007 while Pres. Obama has only been in office for 45 days)
- claims Obama is demonizing the banking system (last I checked everyone is demonizing the banking system--well, except Cramer & company)
- pushes the false impression that taxes right now are being raised on those making > $250K (IIRC that 'tax increase' is simply the sunsetting of the Bush tax cuts in 2011—if 2011 is still 'perilous times' then we have lots more to worry about than the Bush tax cuts!)
- claims the Stimulus Plan is 'Democratic pork' (by definition it is not pork, but I understand this interpretation by the anti-stimulus crowd—ironically Cramer calls for the US to adopt a Chinese stimulus plan—so Cramer doesn’t like Democratic 'pork' but he’s okay with Communist policies!)
- tries to align himself with heroic Pearl Harbor survivors and WWII vets and claims we first need to 'win the war' against banking and then later investigate (this made me laugh! Cramer, a hero! Who knew?!)
"I could go on because there’s plenty more. But I really enjoyed the subtleness of how Cramer talked about Limbaugh ('genius') before talking about Pres. Obama, which infers a greater degree of importance onto Limbaugh ('genius'). Then towards the end, Cramer completely flip-flopped and said he 'embrace[s] every part of Obama's agenda, right down to the increase on personal taxes', but finally dismissed them with his ace-in-the-hole now’s-not-the-time card."
"Well, Cramer, when is the right time? Apparently 'when they [people who want to be rich] get there [get rich], if times are good [who gets to define what are 'good' times?], we can have them give back or pay higher taxes.'"
"Reread that last clause 'we can have them give back or pay higher taxes.' Isn’t that full-on class warfare?! I think that we-them statement is the perfect summation of Cramer’s entire screed: now’s not the time for us to do anything, let’s wait until things get 'good', and then some other unidentified group can fix the problem. But until then it’s all Obama’s fault!"
"(by the way, one of the governors that Cramer said he supported in a major financial way was his best bud from his college days Eliot Spitzer. Yeah, Client No. 9. Spitzer has also been implicated that he used his power as NY State Attorney General to bring lawsuits against companies his friends were naked short selling, i.e. Cramer and associates. The negative publicity of the lawsuits helped create firesales on the company stocks by which Cramer et al made million$ naked short selling, amongst other nefarious plots.)"
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I'm sure my M.I.C. right-winger, WorldNetDaily believer boss will dismiss my comments outright, but I appreciate our honest and open discussions. I'll try to follow up in the comments with any replies I receive from him.
-- see also TocqueDeville for details on suspected Cramer illegalities. --
No surprise that Cramer posted his response on a site he owns (or used to own, correct me on that if needed) and that his poll is > 80% favorable for him. But I was surprised they actually found > 10% who were unfavorable with Cramer on his own site! How does that pole shake out in the DKos commune? (yes, rhetorical Q, but fun!)