Cramer On A Great Depression: Is It Just Worth Having? (VIDEO)

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money," asked Wachovia CEO Robert Steel about the various crises in the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve's response: "Do we want to be able to avoid that great depression or is it just worth having?"

WATCH:

Comments

[danton2000]

09:15 AM on 09/24/2008

It's probably time for CNBC to shut down both Cramer's show and Kudlow's. If I have to listen to these guys "Buyah" or reference "goldilocks" one more time it would be too many. It was fun to watch Kudlow squirm last night as a democratic congressman call him out on his new found socialism. Unbelievable hypocrisy. The line of the week is"privatize the profits, socialize the pain"... All of a sudden these guys that wanted the government out of the free market are crying to the government. They are the court jesters of the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

12:21 PM on 09/21/2008

Cramer is a Bozo

[saron123]

09:55 PM on 09/16/2008

I bet McSame listens to this guy for some advice. That can explain why he kept saying ' the fundamental of our economy is strong.'

[dadw5boys]

07:48 PM on 09/16/2008

it's all about me me me me me me me me me.

well don't ask me me me to bail you out !!!!!

we have been taking care of each other here in the real world, living within our means and saving for our future!!!!!

so me me me suck it up and go bankrupt, call mommy and daddy, or run an hide from the laws just don't call us for a bail out.

[jimgilliamv2]

01:52 PM on 09/16/2008

Go see the movie IOUSA and Cramer is ranting about lower interest rates which, according to the movie, has a disastrous course to take. The easy money policies resulted in TRILLIONS of dollars in national debt under Bush 43.

[dadw5boys]

07:54 PM on 09/16/2008

The USA has crossed a line with the National Debt that now the USA can never repay the National Debt with interest EVER! NEVER EVER !!!!!!

An Interest payment of $ 511,000,000,000.00 is due Oct. 1st .

After that the Interst will only grow at a higher and higher rate until the entire U.S. Economy's only focus is to pay the National Debt Interest.

Since there will be no payment this year but simply addint the Interest to the Balance of the National Debt for our children to face in the future.

The entire U.S. Economc value is based on $ 14 Trillion Dollars and we will be at $ 10 Trillion in Oct. so 3/4 of all value in the U.S. Dollar is tied up in Debt.

THANKS BUSH !! GREAT JOB THERE BROWINE !!!!!!!!!!

[GerryS]

11:53 AM on 09/16/2008

I would not by any stocks on Cramer's advice-


BUYAH!

[javaman]

11:41 AM on 09/16/2008

does this guy ever predict anything correctly?

[lwaxanatroi]

11:06 AM on 09/16/2008

Only if it ends with another Franklin D. Roosevelt,.

[saltpeter]

03:53 AM on 09/17/2008

And if it ends with a big bundle of SOCIALIST (scary words for the greed-mongerers) reforms where the govt shows BIG BUSINESS what job creation is all about. AND MORE REGULATIONS and splitting apart these companies who keep trying to hide their losses in their abundance of subsideries like in some shell game fromn hell.

[mamacat]

03:18 AM on 09/16/2008

Cramer serves a useful function. With his amazing ability to understand and foretell the markets, he has made himself the world's richest individual, and those who heed his advice are all millionaires, at least.

( What's that? He makes his money from his shows, and not from his market picks? What a surprise!)

[OldKnute]

04:00 AM on 09/16/2008

Totally ON TARGET Mamacat! As always.

Cramer tried to Make Investing Cool,, and he has taken 10s of thousands if not 100s of thousands of 22 to 29 year olds right down the TUBES with his Casino Style Capitalism.

I’ll say it NOW,,,, Cramer should be in Jail!!

A Market,,,, PIMP,,, Extraordinaire. Bought, Sold and BRIBED!

News at 11,,,

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[VivaZapata]

06:08 AM on 09/16/2008

i seriously doubt that Cramer is the world's richest individual (unless there's some huge, hidden stash somewhere), but you're certainly right about his bad advice. Unfortunately, it seems if you scream loud enough, even with a head full of nothing, the words get through. Cramer and the rest of the jackasses of CNBC should be ignored by everyone in the sane world.

[obamaluv]

11:48 AM on 09/16/2008

No he is the richest man. and predicted the market botom weeks ago with 100% acuracy

[ROBOT8]

02:25 AM on 09/16/2008

By the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in March 1933, the banking system of the United States had largely ceased to function. Depositors had seen $140 billion disappear when their banks failed. Businesses could not get credit for inventory. Checks could not be used for payments because no one knew which checks were worthless and which were sound.

Roosevelt closed all the banks in the United States for three days - a "bank holiday." Some banks were then cautiously re-opened with strict limits on withdrawals. Eventually, confidence returned to the system and banks were able to perform their economic function again. To prevent similar disasters, the federal government set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which eliminated the rationale for bank "runs" - to get one's money before the bank "runs out." Backed by the FDIC, the bank could fail and go out of business, but then the government would reimburse depositors. Another crucial mechanism insulated commercial banks from stock market panics by banning banks from investing depositors' money in stocks.

[Tom95134]

01:32 AM on 09/16/2008

Cramer needs to wake up. There is already a shadow run on the banking system. People are quietly going on-line and clicking, clicking, clicking to get cash in-hand because they are afraid. If there is a major run then all banking will be shutdown, (just as in the 1930s bank holiday) so the government can get enough liquidity to keep the country running. Remember, in the 1930s most people had cash at home and the only thing in the banks was savings. Today, everything is in the banks because people live off their plastic (either credit or debit cards) and they hit the ATM machine nearly every day. If there is a bank holiday the ATM will be just as dry and the banks with their locked doors.

No, not many are standing in line at the teller window yet but if we have another couple of failures it could happen.

[peepeeray]

01:18 AM on 09/16/2008

Note to Huffpo: If you're going to keep dredging up these pathetic Cramer vids, place them in the Entertainment or 23/6 sections.

[texastrixie]

12:44 AM on 09/16/2008

Can you people say joke? Irony? Cramer was not asking for a new Depression, he was insinuating that the Govt's refusal to save Lehman, and soon, maybe AIG, could lead to one. He was implying that if we want to keep acting like Hoover (he let everything fall apart too), we could soon reap the same rewards - economic collapse. At least that's what I got from the clip.

[MuchMadness]

01:42 AM on 09/16/2008

Exactly. That was my interpretation, too. Cramer wants the government to bail out his Wall Street buddies, so he invoked the specter of a depression.

[FogBelter]

12:23 AM on 09/16/2008

That's right Cramer ... a Great Depression really isn't a bad thing at all ... in fact, it is a buying opportunity! That's it, HOOVER WAS RIGHT!!!! History never happened ... there are no laws ... there are no facts ... We should learn from Cramer ... each of us ... we open our mouths and anything we say based on any topic, regardless of facts, is automatically correct. If CNBC Management is allowing Cramer to get away with rhetoric like this things are worse than we can possibly imagine.

2+2=5

[kassandrasduplex]

12:06 AM on 09/16/2008

CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST HEARD!? "Did Hoover have it right?"
The AMerican people elected and re-elected ROOSEVELT FOUR TIMES during the Republican created Great Drepression. They had had enough of HOOVERVILLES. But now the American people apparently are TOO STUPID to realize what is in their best interests! Stunning! Absolutely stunning!! My nation makes me SICK!