Huffington Post has a video up of our buddy Jim Cramer talking about how he manipulated the market to improve his position on the hedge funds he managed. Some of the activity is ethically wrong - but not illegal, but some of it is out-right against the law. He also extols the virtues of manipulating the 'market mechanics' and says that the 'market fundamentals' are not important. In short, the little weasel is everything that Main-Street Americans hate about the Wall-Street elite - greedy, uncaring of anything or anybody they leave in their wake and totally without regard to ethics or legal niceties when it comes to making money.
More after the break.
The HuppPo article contains a video. I suggest everyone watch it to get a sense of who this guy really is and why he deserves prosecution. In the video, he talks about participating in a practice called "fomenting" or creating an impression that a stock is down in order to take advantage of any short position one might have. The practice is illegal, but Cramer boast that the SEC doesn't have a clue. So no enforcement, no care for our good friend.
He also talks about how he uses CNBC to manipulate market prices so he can do his puts based upon what he knows they are going to report.
But I think the biggest revelation in the video is in Cramer's admitting that the manipulation of market mechanics over any research or deference to market fundamentals. To him, its all a game based on manipulation. That means that there is no way that he could have seen the market fall because he, admittedly, doesn't pay attention to the actual market. This has another affect, but manipulating the market, rather than paying attention to the fundamentals - HE IS ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING in its demise. Because the market is priced based upon manipulation, rather than fundamentals, it can't help but eventually fail when people realize it's smoke and mirrors.
To put it succinctly, it is folks like Cramer that are in large part responsible for the market crash, not President Obama. Selling hedge funds based completely on rumor and conjecture while ignoring the financial health of the country will always lead to a crash. And his bosses at CNBC merrily danced to the tune he was singing. Cramer needs to be brought to justice.
Update 1: Kossack Shhs suggest that we e-mail the video link to our Senators. Great idea.
Update 2: I don't give a crap about how much money Cramer gave to the Democrats or how much he despised Dubya. If he participated in illegal market manipulation, he should be prosecuted. Period.
Update 3: Embedded Video:
Update 4: Turkana has got this covered in his recommended diary.
Update 5: Holy crap guys - I go to a meeting and come back and here I am on the rec list. Do we really need two diaries on the same subject here? Feel free to cancel the rec.