Jim Cramer (Kind Of) Owns Up To His "Bear Stearns Is Fine" Comments

Jim Cramer became a feast for late night comedy after he called Bear Stearns "fine" a week before its spectacular collapse. Cramer appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources, hosted by Howard Kurtz, this morning, and kind of owned up to his clearly incorrect remarks about Bear Stearns. Watch the video below and decide for yourself if Cramer gave a true mea culpa.

Comments

[FDRbyGodDemocrat]

You may as well take financial advice from Cosmo Cramer.

[Kane]

What a bunch of spin. Cramer is corporate clown mirroring the lies of those on Wall Street.

[KRANKY]

The fact is that I have received some fairly solid advice through Cramer, but only as a start. i then do my own research.
nobody should take anubody 's opinion without doing your own homework. Cramer emphasizes this.
I've been wrong before , too. Cramer admits this as well. So does Buffet. So does Lynch.

I take Cramer at his word that he was misconstrued, however , since his show is centyered around stocks, he should have clarified his words at the time.

[Kane]

Cramer has no integrity whatsoever. Being wrong on occasion is not the problem. The problem is that instead of admitting his error, he attempts to explain it off as if he was misunderstood. That's neocon corporatist spin.

[Tom95134]

Cramer should be selling snake oil. Mmm, I guess he is.

[Irons]

Cramer sounds like Alberto Gonzalez.

[LeonBNJ]

Cramer, like all but a few at Bear Stearns, knew little how bad the situation was there. There were rumors indeed, but nothing on paper that could be relied on. You also have the issue of causing a run on the Bear Stearns and other stocks of similary positioned companies and perhaps Cramer, like others were fearful of starting a panic if they discussed the rumors.

[Marlyn]

Huh?

[mmckinl]

Anybody that listens to the pollyannas on CNBC got what they deserve ...

CNBC is corrupt to its core, all snakeoil salesmen and women. Joe Kernan is a complete troglidite who manages to embarass everyone everyday with is ass-backward thinking and ass-kissing crony capitalism repertoire. Erin Burnett and Mark Haines are a shoddy knockoff of Stiller and Meara. And Bartiromo and Cabrera need to cover the arbitrage between their ears.

The few guests they have on that are honest are dismissed with satire and bemusement. Even Ron Insana couldn't take it anymore and is hiding back stage.

To get a much better picture I recommend Bloomberg. They give a much more balanced view.

[ROBOT8]

THIS GUY IS A PUNK!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­! TELLING AMERICANS TO BUY RUSSIAN AND CHINEESE..­..........­he's mao's bitch

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, THE TRUTH IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE STATE." -- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

[ajax2]

His statement was correct if he was selling.

[peepeeray]

Cramer's call of "don't be silly," Bear "is fine," Bear "is not in trouble" was dead wrong. At the moment he uttered those words, Bear was collapsing. He (and Bear) were bailed out by an unprecedented emergency Fed bailout to the tune of $30B. There's no way to spin that. If Cramer said the same thing a few days ahead of Neil Bush's Silverado S&L collapse, he'd have the same argument that he was right and the depositors were safe because the government came in on a white horse with a $1B bailout to cover the FDIC shortfall.

Also, his comment of BSC stock being worthless was on Friday, after the FED/JPM $30B support to prop up the dead company. At that point, Cramer was reporting facts, not giving opinion. Everyone in the biz knew BSC was dead in the water and the Fed was scrambling to find anybody to take it over for pennies on the dollar. The eventual weekend deal was more like pennies on the $10000 bill (Salmon Chase is on the $10000 bill).

Were people shorting because of Cramer? No. But I'm sure many of his sheeple stayed on board or bought on Tuesday because he declared it "not in trouble" with the worst possible downside being a buyout.

[RMcAelfinn]

It gets worse. The following week Cramer tells Erin he knows of five other banks, including the one he banks at, are also in as bad shape. I don't know why that hasn't been a headline?

[ajax2]

I'm suggesting he may have been selling into his recommendation.

[ajax2]

Does one remember Henry Blodget selling on public recommendations?

[Kurukulla]

I am glad I never listened to this fool. If I did, I probably would have lost all my stocks and bonds by now. What a huge mistake, and bad call.

[pkafin]

If he was talking about keeping money in the bank at bear sterns vs. holding onto stock in Bear and Sterns, then he is correct that he was not wrong when he said what he said.

That being the case, he is being an incredibly good sport about this because he was made to look like a total and complete idiot by everyone who ran that clip.

Other people would be yammering about a defamation lawsuit. The ability of people to take him seriously in his professional capacity could have been quite damaged by all those viewings of him looking completely wrong in a way that could be financially ruinous to anyone foolish enough to take his advice.

[OneTruePatriot]

The 64 thousand dollar question remains was the original question really about holding money in a bear stearns account or about bear stearns stock. Does anyone have any proof one way or the other?

[Metacortex]

Cramer did NOT own up to his statements. He attempted (poorly) damage control to soften the obvious fact that even the cleverest and most articulate experts actually have no clue what's going to happen from one day to the next. Playing the market is like playing the lottery for everyone from the newbie to the (so-called) experts, because the public veneer of market activity is only the tip of a much larger ice berg, and the US economy is the Titanic. Cramer is a guy who knows just enough to convince people that his opinion is worth a shit, and this little blooper simply revealed otherwise.

[jmundstuk]

I'm surprised the HuffPost itself doesn't seem to understand the distinction Cramer was making and the question he was answering. Cramer is a brilliant and shrewd investor and shares his views with other investors. Who take risks. He is not managing your retirement account and if you follow his advise to do so, you're being very foolish. He is also a showman and a character. Caveat emptor.

[cfreedom]

No one gave this site the word that Cramer is a livelong Democrat and they're overlooking the fact he works for NBC, their favorite network. They see Cramer as someone on the other side who, because he's involved with Wall Street, must necessarily be someone to be outed. That's the nature of this joint.

[ajax2]

Where are your facts in quotes?

[Earl]

I'm shorting Cramer.