As pointed out by SBD here, on March 5, 2009, Jim Cramer, Private First Class in the Gomer Pyle Brigade, had these words for President Obama:
Look at the incredible decline in the stock market, in all indices, since the inauguration of the president, with the drop accelerating when the budget plan came to light because of the massive fear and indecision the document sowed: Raising taxes on the eve of what could be a second Great Depression, destroying the profits in healthcare companies (one of the few areas still robust in the economy), tinkering with the mortgage deduction at a time when U.S. house price depreciation is behind much of the world's morass and certainly the devastation affecting our banks, and pushing an aggressive cap and trade program that could raise the price of energy for millions of people.
The market's the effect; much of what the president is fighting for is the cause. The market's signal can't be ignored. It's too palpable, too predictive to be ignored, despite the prattle that the market's predicted far more recessions than we have.
It was heartening to see a confused, bleeding heart maniac like Cramer admit that "his man," whose entire agenda Cramer admits to believing in, was a fraud and charlatan of the first order, as no competent executive would call for such a range of change on the economy at a time when the economy was teetering on the precipice of depression. Cramer - whose business is business, whose business is finding the strengths and weaknesses of the economy as reflected in the values of the firms functioning within it, whose business is taking that information and then using it to make some predictions about the future to make some money for himself and anyone else willing to take a chance on his 20 some years of stock prognostication - saw the danger and fundamental stupidity of the President's most passionate initiatives, and so pulled up, ordered a dismount, 'cause this guy's leading us into an ambush and massacre.
This was news, of course. People listen to Cramer. CNBC is popular with the Investor Class and with regular people sitting around working on half-assed blogs. Mr. Cramer generated two opinions. Those on the right admired Mr. Cramer's confession that, although he was a bleeding heart, goody two shoes liberal, he had to call a spade a spade and declaim on the President's grand plans as ruinous for the country. Those on the left decided that one of their own had committed a terrible sin and would need to be punished. Mr. Cramer attempted to lay low (which is diff cult when you are contractually obligated to appear on two or three hours of live TV five days a a week), but being a spineless pussy, caved in, backtracked, and then, in a grand gesture of mea culpa, agreed to appear on the Daily Show to be fucked up the ass by that small handed, smirking prison guard Jon Stewart. Stewart is the conscience of the Liberal Salons; the castigator, the confessor, the professor of preening moral outrage. His tool is humor. A tool nonetheless. He is a priest of the left and will hear your confession and then humiliate you in front of pews of college students and near childless Ivy League couples in New York for the day. Cramer did not say much on the show, but sat there with a stupid grin on his mug, apologizing for making a bad call on Bear Stearns. But no one should be fooled about why he was there: he said bad things about the One and had to atone.
Fine. That's entertainment. And it was entertaining.
But now it is not entertaining. A loud voice of the left who had a problem with the leader of his movement's plans to radically alter the economy and said so, has now, two short weeks later, essentially recanted and is now calling his President a brilliant, pro-market enthusiast.
Last night on his show, Mr. Cramer, or rather the alien pretending to be Cramer, or Jim Cramer under the influence of narcotics or booze, or Jim Cramer of the undiagnosed bipolar disorder, had this to say:
After acting as though the markets didn't matter, writing off as simply a place where the fat cats kept their money... demonizing the bankers... which created an atmosphere of terror for investors... where we were all scared to death for our nest eggs... Obama heeded the critics... even some from his own party...
He's seen the light...
Obama changed. Or, at least, his message did...
He seems to have realized that he was heading down a path that was causing the Great Wealth Destruction... so he changed course... Obama realized the market's power and importance. He grasped the fact that many people actually own stocks and even those who don't are affected by the markets that they have pensions or annuities or life insurance policies with, which sure as heck are not in CDs...
Yeah, in very quick study, the President figured it out... His team got the message... and we've been hearing pro-business noises from them ever since. It's clear the man is light years ahead of his predecessor...
No matter how much we yelled... No matter how much the public and the experts criticized what was going on, Bush and Paulson never once changed direction... never.
Obama's team is different, and their positive pro-business attitude has now changed the way we feel about the market...
Sure, sure... we got some numbers... but we got a lot of bad numbers too... Mostly, though, we've got a president who can change his mind... one who recognized that our 401(k)s and annuities are filled with stocks... an asset class that's had its worst decade in history and, frankly, we just can't take it anymore.
With this constructive attitude toward Main Street nest eggs, he created a brighter prism, through which we interpret data, that would most certainly have been viewed negatively or even ignored before.
Now that change in tone could not be more important... But here's the problem...
The chicanery at American International Group (AIG)... It could roll it all back... See, we're in a real jam here..
This is the moment that will test the new Obama... the one who watches the ticker... the one who's worried about your 401k... the one who knows it could lose more than he could save you in tax cuts... who knows the American people own two assets... homes and stocks... and I know Obama wants their value preserved.
But the temptation to go populous, because of AIG's disgraceful actions... it must be enormous on the President and on the Treasury Secretary...
We cannot afford a return of the old populous Obama... Remember that one? The "this is not the time for profits" president?... He's got to be a realist. In order to save your home and your portfolio, Geithner has to convince Obama and the rest of the administration not blame all the bankers and all the other financial types for the sins AIG... I mean, we can already see people piling on from both parties... and I realize that people don't realize that AIG has been an aberration the whole way...
The Obama administration made this rally possible, because they changed their mind, they changed their tone, and they became more like President Clinton... They stopped demonizing the banks... Now, AIG has put that in jeopardy, and we need Treasury Secretary Geithner to acknowledge that the bad guys at American International Group(AIG) are not the same as the rest of the banks. Or we're going to see that 6,500 (Dow) again... we're going to roll back our gains... and then some.
And on just what the hell has the President done a 180? Prior to his on air fellatio of the president, Cramer had shot his 5-Hour Energy soaked load over Fed Chairman Ben "Farragut" Bernanke's $1.15 trillion assault on the market's lethargy over the Treasury Department's bailout failures. (And SBD finds it necessary to remind Mr. Cramer that his new hero Ben Bernanke, who is solely responsible for any mini-Bull market about to ensue on Wall Street, was chosen by President Bush back in 2005). Has Obama backed down from his $2 trillion dollar hidden tax on energy consumption. Was President Obama just joshing about those increases in tax rates on so-called wealthy Americans, you know, the ones who run most of the small businesses in this country? Did SBD miss the WSJ article on how President Obama has decided not to nationalize health care?
Thus, SBD would suggest that not a god damned thing has changed with respect to President Obama's attitude about "the market," private enterprise, economic freedom, statism, or the necessary limitations of government.
What Mr. Cramer is so high on his Ben Bernanke's new initiated inflation bubble.
Who knows why Jim Cramer so thoroughly and lamely contradicts himself over the span of two weeks? Could be that his invitations to the best Spring cocktail parties have been called into question until he had made things right.
Bottom line, as Mr. Cramer likes to say, is that Mr. Cramer is nothing more than a hack and a shill for the administration. We expect him to be a hack and shill for "Wall Street." He is in violation of rule number one on Wall Street: do not let your emotions cloud your judgement on when to sell. Mr. Cramer made a sell call on President Obama. He is now all "Buy, Buy, Buy" the President. Mr. Cramer is now VP of Investor Relations at Obama Co. Shameful and pathetic. And it makes him this week's spineless pussy.
Cramer should hew to some advice heard in other quarters associated with celebrities opining on things outside their area of expertise. Shut Up and Sing.
Mr. Cramer: shut up and call the picks.
