From December 14, 2007 "The Federal Reserve created the .... Housing Bubble" - Jim Cramer on Ron Paul Watch this and understand that, then Presidential Candidate, Rep. Ron Paul predicted this supposed "crisis" and what would cause it. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhKyD7kKlJg]YouTube - Cramer Interviews Ron Paul[/ame] Remember folks, when you graduate college with a degree in Economics it is a B.S. - a Bachelor of Science!!!! _The Science of Economics._ Blaming bad debt on homeowners is analogous to the bartender blaming the patron for getting drunk and causing a wreck. By law the bartender can cut off the patron any time they want, casinos do it all the time. Senate to vote on rescue plan Wednesday <http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/30/news/economy/bailout_tuesday/index.htm?cnn=yes> The Senate plans to vote on the $700 billion financial rescue plan Wednesday evening -- two days after the House failed to pass it. The bill adds provisions including raising the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000, and it will be packaged with other economic measures. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the plan. --cnn.com
Good stuff Joey. I would caution you on the Science aspect though. In a lot of colleges, most I believe, Econ is actually offered in the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This is where Social Studies (sciences) are covered. Econ. actually finds its origins in Philosophy and originally dealt with morality. I wish it were a hard science, but it's much more a study of modeling and those models will always have a philosophical bias underlying them. That said, I completely agree with the Fed (in conjunction with the GSE being forced to fund so many non-prime mortgages). I actually made a pretty long post about it a while back. One thing that Cramer is wrong on, by my account, is that the worst of these loans were made under Bernanke. I don't see how that can be true. November of 2005 is when the wall began to be written on. I was in the mortgage business both on the retail side and as a wholesale representative. At that point in time, we were faced with the realization that our rates (subprime rates) were about to jump a point that month, and more in the very near future. A pretty big subprime lender had just had its nose shoved in the pile of **** it brought to Wall St. It brought instant panic to the industry. Only two months later my company lost its bond rating. Within three more months lenders began dropping like flies. Big lenders too. All of these lenders specialized in Subprime and Nonprime. IMO blaming Bernanke for this is total BS. Greenspan was giving away free money all with the belief that there couldn't be a housing implosion. Meanwhile Congress had legislature that forced the issue, and the stock market was coming off 9/11. It was the perfect storm.
Sorry Finswin, all this information was cut and pasted from a buddy of mine in Louisiana, I should have made it known it was all quotes. Cramer is actually wrong on most things actually, in my industry he is looked on as the class clown. Anyone that takes investing or trading advice from him should have their head examined. Bernanke should only receive3 minor disgust for this situation as it almost all has to be laid bare at the feet of Greenspan. Still, Bernake currently carries the unconstituional Fed flag, still playing with fed fund rates like a yo yo, still printing Dollars as fast as the presses will run.
I do agree that he carries that flag. I wonder what his position on the Fed was before taking the position, back when he was at Princeton?
I dont know if anyone knows Bernanke that well and from that far back in time. Watching him on T.V. give speeches is pretty painful to watch and he does not strike me as the kind of guy you want to kick back a beer with and watch the ball game. More like drink grape juice and play Parcheesi with that dude.
quote of the year. seriously, cramer's a moron circus barker that (for some inexplicable reason) draws huge public interest... probably because he's somewhat entertaining in an otherwise boring topic. anyway there is a website out there (i'm trying to find it now) that has just recorded every stock pick he makes and tracks them... last time i checked it, he had an under 20% success rate, but i think that is largely due to some of the picks having enough time to rebound after they fell. he routinely has people on the show.... CEO's of companies he pimps. If you look at the charts of these companies he pimps, they are all always wayyyy up, near the top. yes, because buying at the top is what you should do /sarcasm. I have noticed a trend, he picks random companies to pimp b/c he gets those CEO's on the phone or on videoconference. there's obviously some shady politics at work there in the background. most recently.... In the middle of September, Cramer invited the CEO of Wachovia on Mad Money, in order to recommend the stock to potential investors. Cramer agreed with CEO Robert Steel that the company was fundamentally sound and that the ratio of good loans to bad loans was low. Cramer would recommend the stock to his viewers up to one business day before Citi acquired Wachovia's banking operations. On Monday, September 29th, Wachovia's share prices dropped over 95% following news of the Citi acquisition. On the following episode of Mad Money, Cramer blamed poor financial data on the costly stock pick. Prior to this, Cramer had stated, "This is run by Bob Steel. He's as close as we're going to get to a great banker. I think he's going to make this a great company. Cramer on Bear Stearns (this one is one of my favorites). LiveLeak.com - Jim Cramer Last Week: Don't Sell Bear Stearns! that was the week before the Bear collapse. i'm sure more people have lost money than made money listening to this man... the problem is the people who have lost money don't have the national tv stage to declare as such, and only the constant flow of people awed by cramer's antics on tv are the only people you hear from. i can't find that "jim cramer pick" website that literally goes into detail on all the picks and how much they are down as compared to the market. if anyone finds it, please post it. it details each pick and is pretty definitive.
