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

[cfreedom]

People on this blog talking about investing is akin to people on this site talking about politics - lots of opinions without knowledge. Cramer said the Bear Stearns stock was worthless but that money was safe in the Bear Stearns investment bank. I know that must sound confusing and like Greek to you all, but that's a fact - and he was right on both counts.

[Earl]

If this were the case, then the video above should sound as eloquent as your words, instead of like a stuttering fool.

[cfreedom]

He's no fool, Earl. He's been a brilliant investor – and he's made millions for himself and for others - since he graduated from Harvard Law School many years ago. Still, no investor is always right and Cramer is going to stumble just for the sheer fact he makes so many quick - and arguably flippant - calls every day. But in the case of this Bear Stearns call, he was right on the common stock and right on the safety of money in the Bear bank.

[americanwhocares]

cfreedom, and you are such an "expert". BS

[cfreedom]

Never claimed to be an expert, but he clearly said on that Friday show that the BSC common stock was worthless. You can fault him for many things - we can all be faulted for many things - but this was a case of misunderstanding. Cramer's intent was clear, imo.

[nabrum]

Cramer made no such distinction between BSC the stock and BSC the bank, until AFTER the collapse. And that was his spin to Erin's questions on CNBC on Monday am when she questioned him on hos response to the caller. Cramer almost melted down, he was sweating so much.

Go find his original comments for the caller asking if he should bail from BSC.

You've succumbed to the Cramer propaganda spin.

[StevenHyde]

"People on this blog talking about investing is akin to people on this site talking about politics - lots of opinions without knowledge."

Touché.

--Hyde

[realpolitic]

I would want my financial decisions made by someone a little more thoughtful than Cramer. He seems like he's at the track cheering for his favorite horse to come in the money after he just bet his monthly rent.

[bikerdude]

On the other hand, I would love to be as successful as Mr. Cramer. He is brilliant and entertaining and way, way rich....

[ProfessorDuh]

Ken Lay was also brilliant and entertaining and way, way rich....

[realpolitic]

Bikerdude, I can not disagree with you there and he made his riches in the market. Did not he say he lived out of a car at one time? To make money on Wall Street, one probably should study Warren Buffet's approach of value investing or tie funds to an index fund of the S&P 500. Of course, it is all kind of above me.

[longnow]

That is the way people with no experience use his advise-
like they were picking horses. If Cramer picks a stock it
must be right. How can that be? No one can do that
and people can't seem to see that. He gives informed
advice that can be wrong because there are so many factors
that can make it wrong beyond the info he uses.
In the Bear Sterns mess he did not distinguish between
having an account or holding the stock in that one
segment and, I believe that was deliberate. One other
occasions that week he said that many banks would be insolvent
and there would be runs on certain banks. He also said
that BS stock was worthless on another day that week.
All this was calculated. To avoid panic he worded that
answer to the email deliberately. To tell the truth he said
there would be runs on banks. He might have been
ordered to make that answer the way he did to that
email.

[realpolitic]

Yes, I suppose if Cramer truly had insight, and he had to know that Bear Sterns had a riskier portfolio than many other Wall Street firms, that he should have warned people about a collapse. I mean, his show is designed to tell stock holders what they should do and not those with money in a bank. Besides, if Bear Sterns was regulated, the deposits are federally insured up to a certain amount of money and depositers do not have to worry.

[ssg13565]

Since Bear Stern was not a commercial bank, were there

savings accounts insured by FDIC? I do not think so.

Did Bear Stern have investment accounts like Merrill Lynch does?

These would be insured, I believe. So to answer the question of whether

or not Cramer was right, we would need more information.

Are any reporters savvy enough to know what information they should provide?

Very few are. Certainly CNN does not seem to up to the task. Judging by

this article, neither is the Huffington Post.

[rodeman]

Damn ssg, I hate it when your sane, logical, and right......

[ProfessorDuh]

You'd have to be a fool to base investment decisions on the lies from this loudmouth shill.

[elpollo]

The write in email simply says that "he has his money in Bear Stearns." He doesn't say whether it is in their common stocks, money market accounts, or that he is simply using them as his broker for other stocks and bonds. Furthermore, the Feds shotgun wedding of BS to JPMChase with its $30B offer to underwrite its useless mortgage paper with treasuries came as a surprise to pretty much everybody. With all this in mind, I would say the Kramer's response was completely wrong and irresponsible. Between CNBC and Seinfeld, what is it with these hysteric Kramer characters?

[the964kid]

Cramer said: 'No no no! Bear Stearns is fine - don't take your money out of Bear - the company is fine!' This is a financial advisor?? I'd hate to be the person who left my money in Bear after hearing Cramer gave such energetic support of Bear Stearns. And in this clip here Cramer didn't take any responsibility at all for his complete prediction failure. This is the moment he's gonna be remembered for, how can anyone listen to some body who was this wrong? This is what happens when Cramer bring this chaotic 'Mad' energy to everything he talks about.

[JackW]

The government backs the debt, so the money is fine. No analyst picked Bear Stearns to be scooped up for a measly $2 a share! Then after the shock, the stock comes back! Somebody made a killing on this...seems a little fishy to me! I wathed that show in its entirety and he did explian in more detail, but sound bites will obvioulsy win out. Just ask Barack!
Cramer was the one who months ago called on the Fed to do something or the country was headed into a recession. By the time they acted, it was underway! So I guess he called that right, when a ton of analysts on CNBC, Bloomberg, FOX Business, WSJ etc said there is no recession looming and Cramer was just spouting and trying scare tactics. He was right!!!

[Justtellthetruth]

What you fail to see is that the clip you watched was referencing Peoples MONEY in Bear and NOT the share price. I.E. your savings or OTHER assets at Bear are insured and perfectly safe, and he was not commenting AT ALL about the value of Bears stock, which he in fact had warned about.

Don't feel bad, it's the fault of the IDIOT who even ran this story in the first place in such an UNBELIEVABLY misleading way that led to your misinterpretation.

[Abroad]

Does anyone really listen to these "business" shows?

I mean, Cramer's lunatic rantings are perhaps stand-up comedy material (although way poorer than Lewis Black), but only low functionning pinheads would give them any credibility.

[djthedj]

What a putz! I suppose that anyone dumb enough to listen to this blithering idiot deserves to lose their money.

[uktiger]

I agree, Cramer talks to suckers who think they can time the market or derive more useful information out of public announcements than the next guy. SORRY.

[Justtellthetruth]

He had it exactly right. You cannot watch his show in sound bytes, or without something more than passing knowlegde of investing and expect to get anything out of it, and the person who even THOUGHT that the particular clip indicated something negative about cramers discussion of Baer clearly IS only watching in sound bytes and with no knowledge of investing.

[jmundstuk]

Of course.