Jim Cramer: Make Me The Next SEC Chairman

On CNBC this evening, "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer offered Obama a novel option for turning around the US economy: making Jim Cramer his next SEC Chairman. Cramer, insisting it wasn't his "usual megalomania talking," said that Obama would be smart to give him the job.

Read a partial transcript below.

DO YOU WANT THE MARKET TO BECOME A SAFE PLACE TO INVEST AGAIN? A PLACE WHERE THE PLAYING FIELD BETWEEN THE LONGS, REGULAR INVESTORS LIKE YOURSELF, AND THE SHORTS OFTEN HEDGE FUNDS, WILLING TO DESTROY GOOD COMPANIES IN ORDER TO TURN A PROFIT?

DO YOU WANT THAT? DO YOU WANT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? THEN I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. I KNOW WHO YOU WANT. YOU WANT JAMES J. CRAMER TO BE YOUR NEXT SEC CHAIRMAN. [holds up sign Cramer for SEC chairman with head shot] THAT'S RIGHT.THROWING THE HAT IN THE RING. AS OF NOW, I'M FORMALLY PUTTING MYSELF FORWARD FOR THE JOB OF SEC CHAIR AND I WANT IT. AND FRANKLY, OBAMA WILL BE SMART TO GIVE IT TO ME. THIS ISN'T JUST MY USUAL MEGALAMANIA TALKING. I DON'T MEAN TO BRAG, BUT LOOK, LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT MY RESUME [shows giant prop resume]

I'M A LAWYER BY TRAINING -- I SOUND LIKE AN AD RIGHT -- A STOCK JOCK, A FORMER HEDGE FUND MANAGER, A GUY WHO KNOWS THE TRICKS AND HAS SEEN OTHERS DO THEM. ALTHOUGH TO BE VERY CLEAR, I NEVER DID ANYTHING ILLEGAL OR EVEN CLOSE TO UNETHICAL, BECAUSE IN THE END, I AM A GOODY TWO SHOES AND I ACTUALLY HAVE A NEW PAIR OF GOOODY TWO SHOES.

BUT I HAVE SEEN OTHER MONEY MANAGERS DO THINGS THAT WE ONCE STOPPED AND I KNOW HOW TO DETECT THEM. WOW, HEY LISTEN, HE WENT TO HARVARD, HE MUST BE REALLY SMART.

AS FDR SAID WHEN HE APPOINTED JOE KENNEDY TO RUN THE SEC, IT TAKES A FOX TO GUARD THE HEN HOUSE. THE MARKET NEEDS OBAMA TO DECLARE WHO HE WANTS TO RUN FOR THE SEC.

HE HAS GOT TO PICK HIM SOON. HE BETTER START VETTING ME AND MY COMPETITION. BECAUSE WE NEED CHRIS COX OUT OF THERE ASAP! ON A RAIL! WE'VE GOT TO UNDO COX'S LEGACY QUICKLY.A LEGACY OF SUBVERTING EVERYTHING THAT WAS PUT IN PLACE TO MAKE THE MARKET SAFE FOR INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS, AND EMPOWERING -- THIS IS WHAT HE DID -- EMPOWERING SHORT SELLERS TO CREATE FEAR AND DESTRUCTION.

Comments

[veracity]

Read Cramer's "Confessions of a Street Addict", you learn that Cramer's investments - hedge funds - were not once, not twice, but THREE DIFFERENT TIMES.... SAVED, RESCUED, by his WIFE's timely advice &/or intervention!

For his first self-managed fund, Cramer wrote the contract "mandatory termination if fund drops 10%", & presto!, the fund immediately dipped 9%+, triggering panic & forcing Jim to ask his wife to straighten the fund out.

She immediately tossed almost all his picks.

The 2nd time Cramer's funds faced major chaos, Jim found himself locked into (got himself into!) very large positions in several small, regional banks that the "Big Boys" - were trying to drive into bankruptcy - by coordinated short-selling, the big hedge operators hoping to buy the pieces of the ruined banks for pennies on the dollar.

Jim again had to call his wife in, & with her counsel and some good luck, he dodged that bankruptcy bullet. If I recall, the third time Jim was big-time bullish, got himself way too overextended as the markets pummeted, & when his wife _stepped in_ to "buy" as she sensed a bottom, Jim, out of panic, was undoing her purchases!

"Confessions" is a "must read", not just for showing how the "Big Boys" at apex of the financial food chain really are ammoral, ruthless bastards (we knew that anyways), but specifically how they can drive a wounded company into bankruptcy by that coordinated short-selling of huge positions.

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Street-Addict-James-Cramer/dp/0743224876

[Indieguy]

The highly caffienated Cramer for SEC Chairman? I think NOT. Jim, did you know that brewed decaf is available now.

[artimus711]

Caffeine?.­.....caffe­ine isn't that powerful..­.....would the SEC job require drug- testing?..­....just curious...­...lol

[ron1000]

Cramer has got to be joking, he's a loudmouthed jerk.

[Rog49Thomas]

Jim, what the heck do you know about college football?

I presuming that is the SEC you're referring to 'cause I've seen little indication from you of any financial skills.

[VSamuels]

The problem with the U.S. financial markets begin and end with the culture of the folks who come to make up the vast majority of folks in collegiate business schools. I've had the experience to listen, live around and be in conversation with many of the types of bi-polar personalities whose main reason for going into business does not match with their nationalistic fervor of making the US No. 1.
Rather, business school is a ticket to steal and to plunder and to rape, having the right business contacts of family, friends and associates who will surely pluck some to plumb jobs after they've graduated with the right degree.

The approach playing out in the media is but a bandaid, it is merely trying to fix what the 'problem' has now manifested by the rot that is present in the pipeline, which sends the B-school grads into a meat grinder that is less concerned with the stability of financial markets, as much as it is in landing big clients and pulling down 6, 7, 8 digit bonuses. The swiftness to bandaid the problem may nonetheless have been wise, but it is unwise to only frame the issue as 'fixing' what is obvious, than looking at the source of where the white collar labor comes from and the corporate culture that has many years in the making, made the problem occur.

There is a human element to this that the 'throwing' money mentality can't solve or mitigate.

[lovesds]

PLEASE PEOPLE CRAMER WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE SAYING BUY WHEN HE KNEW COMPANIES WERE ABOUT TO FAIL. PLEASE CRAMER GET BACK ON THE MEDS. THIS MAN HAS BEEN LEAVING PEOPLE DOWN THE WRONG PATH FOR AWHILE, I WOULD RATHER FOLLOW A RAT THAN CRAMER.

[Peter007]

Didn't Jim use to sell electronic equipment on TV for Crazy Eddies? NO? , sure sounded like him.

[jcwtts1]

about 8 months ago Jim Cramer said that the deregulation of the commodity market hadn't really effected the price of Oil. That at most, MOST, the deregs had hit the price 10 dollars a barrel. So two months after the collapse of the markets when everyone had to sell their holdings and the futures just to stay alive, the price of oil drops 100 dollars a barrel. So basically the speculators had driven the price up ten times what Cramer said it had been and in my mind that disqualifies him to be anything anywhere in the O admin.

[CactusTom]

He does know where the bodies are buried

[booker52]

No way. This guy has missed the mark on more then one day of the market. He has said things that are dumb (oh yeah). My vote, no!!!

[vgirl1]

America does not need an angry, shouting, loud mouth in this postion. Cramer is grating enough on MSNBC. I can't imagine making him the lead on the SEC and forcing us to listen to his rants on a national perspective.

Moreover, his investment advice has proved less then stellar and he poses a definitive conflict of interest.

I can't think of a worse choice.

[shanamaidle]

Bear Stearns dude.

[LiberalProfessor]

Yeah Cramer... you'd be great...

Like when you told everyone to buy Bear Stearns...­.

Wasn't that you?

No, but really, you are a class act!

[GuyFawkes]

He made a career of saying "buy! buy! buy!" into the stock market. Even the NY Times had a story that said he was cowed by his own admitted bad advice a couple of months ago.

Also, he said in August McCain had the better economic plan.

No, thanks. This guy's just trying to get a second wind to his sinking career.

[javaman]

yeah, jim, but first let me go slam some heroin.

[realityisbetter]

If you ask me, I'd classify Cramer giving stock advice to the public as unethical.