Somehow Jon Stewart missed perhaps the most damning Jim Cramer clip of all from the CNBC archives.
A truly embarrassing, and revealing, video has been posted on YouTube for well over a year, showing Cramer railing against New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for his early mortgage crackdowns, including going after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, he calls "this guy" Cuomo a "genuine Communist."
He gestures wildly and practically screams throughout the clip, posted by the Business and Media Institute at businessandmedia.org in November 2007. The New York Times' City Room blog has just linked to the video, meaning more exposure to come.
Cuomo had just delivered subpoenas to Fannie and Freddie calling on them to review their appraisals and mortgages with Washington Mutual. Fannie and Freddie later became insolvent--and WaMu went under. So Cuomo looks pretty damn good today.
Yet the video finds Cramer starting by calling Cuomo the most powerful guy on The Street and "most important man in America" just then - but he means this "negatively" and is "tired of it." He goes on to argue: "Cuomo's about confiscation -- genuine communist...The Chinese are capitalists, we got a communist." He hits him for holding up sales of more houses still on market.
"Can I give you the real headline? Cuomo says, let's make it harder to get a mortgage, let's make it harder to lend.....Is this really the intent of this Democrat who wants to be president of the universe?... Well thank you Mr. Cuomo....Who is this guy? Did you vote for him? ....Cuomo, wow.
"This guy is going to shut down the mortgage market." He calls him "General Cuomo." And : "Cuomo is about losing money."
The host at least pushes back a bit. And she says Cuomo has been invited on but has not yet accepted. Cramer says, "Come on, he would walk a mile for a camera."
To view video: http://www.eandppub.com/...
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Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher. His latest book, "Why Obama Won," was reviewed by Susan G here two weeks ago.
