Jim Cramer: Geithner Made Everybody Feel That the Banking System was Safe
By Heather Tuesday Oct 13, 2009 6:00am
Chris Matthews and Jim Cramer praise President Obama, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner for saving us from another Great Depression while failing to note a number of things. One, what caused the financial collapse in the first place that resulted in the need to rescue it. Two, that we still don't know where all of our tax dollars went. And three, that the system is still not safe and as Simon Johnson just pointed out on Bill Moyers Journal, things could worse because the system has not been reformed.
Matthews: Well, I guess the big question I would have Jim is if you had to look say five, ten years from now, looking back to now with the clarity of history, does Barack Obama deserve credit for a) avoiding a second Great Depression as he came into office with a strong stimulus of almost two trillion dollars in fiscal stimulus, huge printing of money, the bailouts etc. and secondly has he really put us on the course to recovery from this recession?
Cramer: Alright, I think it’s a team effort. Chris, first of all Ben Bernanke was late, but really went into high gear and the transition from Bush to Obama was really saved by Bernanke’s actions. Second, Bernanke did a good thing, but also Tim Geithner did a good thing and you could argue well Tim Geithner’s totally Obama’s man. Geithner made everybody feel that the banking system was safe. Once we had the banking system safe we began to have the recovery. So Obama should get a lot of credit for that.
Matthews: Well you know when the politicians wag and the right wing goes after them as they do—that’s the way politics works—they say bailouts, bailouts, bailouts as if there’s something wrong with the guy. They say deficits, deficits, deficits as if there’s something wrong with the guy. But everything I studied on college and grad school was that you’ve got to do those things, both in terms of the sectors of the economy which were in trouble, the financial sectors, the auto industry and you had to do something with regard to the over all economy in terms of printing the money, monetary policy, fiscal policy. The very things he did are things you’re taught you have to do. Am I wrong?
Cramer: No! You’re totally right. I hear those people criticize and I think, did they ever read any history about what this country did wrong between 1929 and 1932? This was exactly—what these pundits are calling for is exactly what created a multi-year depression. No! I mean, Bernanke, Obama, Geithner…they got it right!
Matthews: Well, all you hear from on the right is like Terry Jeffrey’s my pal who sits there like from Human Events on the far right, they come on here as if all you had to do was laissez faire. Step back; let the invisible hand solve the problem. Say’s law is still in effect, everything’s going to clear—they actually say this crap… so loudly they must believe it or else they’re just desperate. But they do believe that doing nothing was the right answer. Just balance the budget.
Cramer: They’re dreamers. Look!
Matthews: Let business solve the problem.
Cramer: Here’s the hand. It wasn’t invisible. It was choking America. We are very lucky that these guys understood history. Now the reason why it’s easy to criticize Obama and why he doesn’t take any credit is we haven’t created any jobs yet Chris.
Matthews: Yeah.
Cramer: And that is bad.
Sadly being humiliated by Jon Stewart was not enough to keep Jim Cramer from ever appearing on my television set again. He was right back on the air pretending it didn't happen. I don't know why anyone would take this guy's advice about anything. Later in the segment he also said this when asked about where we were headed with unemployment.
I think we are at the peak or within .1 [of the peak]. We are not going to breach 10%. I have my neck on the line on that.
Oy.
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"My friends, the fundamentals of the economy are strong"
Two winners of the "ALWAYS WRONG" awards - offering piffle for profits.
Scrooo them both.
where are all of the news people, this isn't a news show, it is a "newsyish" show.
Bear now?
Buy a bear and a bull just to be safe. Don't let the bear eat the bull. Okay, we've covered the economy. Any other problems?
Jim Cramer is mostly hot air surrounded by ego.
Anyone who does this deserves every low down kick they get.
If the unemployment payments stop; we will See a drop in Unemployment rates. People still won't have jobs but the reported rates will not go up farther.
That's how Bush made his Unemployment numbers begin to go down suddenly; by refusing to call for an extension of payments.
Republicans do not want to further extend unemployment payments; could that be in their worst interest? They are great at shooting themselves in the foot.
RoFlMaO . . oh the irony
Simon Johnson isn't quite ready to throw in the towel on capitalism altogether, as am I. He therefore is no raging leftist, if it were up to me I would round all the crooks up and start a real investigation. Johnson will have to do for now, he is as good as there is.
On NPR is a discussion with Johnson, who supported Obama in the election but not his proposals now, and Charles Calomiris who supported McCain in the election but likes Obamas' current proposals. What is the drift of that, Obama is actually from McCain territory and as everyone knows, McCain knew nothing about economics.
Story and links to the NPR piece:
Baseline Scenario here
---
Unemployment U-3 is already over 10% with the Bureau of Labor Statistics admission that it used an unworkable model.
They cook the numbers everywhere. As the dark patron saint of disinformation said: 'The truth is the enemy of the State".
---
Two related pieces:
Pam Marten at Counterpunch, Citigroup, the predators of brotherhood, secret deals with Washington and the piranhas of Wall Street, here
Amazing but for very dark reasons.
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Jesse on Stiglitz here, good speech in Brussels here, the Banksters will try another heist when they go bust next time, unless we stop them. Which is also Simon Johnson's theme.
Why in the hell is this criminal allowed to give his opinion?
I guess his balls dropped back down after that interview with Jon Stewart, had him nearly in tears.
What a fucking douche.
... but Cramer is making a good case for changing that status.
$750 Billion.
Seen plenty of bonuses, corporate retreats, jet planes, office remodels ...
Haven't seen any reregulation, any change (not just from the Obama side of the problem), just ol' shifty-eyed Timmy looking like he's trying to not get caught fellating the financials pulling his chain.
He wants to give Burnbanke and the Federal Reserve unlimited power!
Richard Belzer on Bill Maher's show. (commenting on the federal reserve.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcgCqpRaoiw&fe...
.
I liked his take on why "Kennedy's head exploded...(and I can't believe Maher never heard that "explanation" before)...
Maher is not that "hip" if you ask me...
lol
but occasionally he does make a good point, or makes a funny.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSgc/SbLbcY3...
http://exiledonline.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
(then me and your money will go someplace sunny)
Shorting stock allows speculators to profit from falling stock prices.
Shorting is the primary mechanism for traders to identify and out fraudulent and overpriced stock.
There are two sides to the coin.
My take is that of Karl Marx, capital is dead labor, it grows by sucking the life out of the living labor.
... of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Instead of the pod people screeching, they now simply yell, "Socialist! Fascist! Marxist! Communist!"
Just go to sleep, and it will all be over before you know it ...
Two seriously mentally impaired examples of the sociopathic trend in humanity. I am so sorry for you all choosing to watch such. They aren't real you know? They are cardboard creations of a script. Fantasy.
They were created by someone writing a teevee show. They simply don't exist in real life. It would be nice if you pointed that out.
the power of brainwashing
(as seen in your TV)
This is huge. Cramer is one of the biggest Milton Friedman believers on the air. For Cramer to say this is a slap in the face of all his buddies at CNBC like Larry Kudlow and the horribly grotesque Rick Santelli and the money honey Maria Bartiromo.
Some how it seems so perfect pairing these two jokers.
They are both enabling home boys of General Electric Corp.
They are both bogus blowhards who take their own opinions as fact.
They will play both sides of an issue in a heartbeat if it sounds good in their own head.
They are both toadys of the rethugs who try to pretend they're really independent thinkers.
They represent everything (fox is a whole other category of evil) that is banal, cheap and demeaning about alleged tv "news".
They are opportunistic thinkers. They espouse whatever views they think will further their careers.
I freaking give it up
This reminds me to tell you to get a message to Barney Frank and tell him to get some strict regulations into law for the financial institutions. Barney Frank said this weekend that the best way to get you point across to politicians is by calling them and emailing them.
Phone Barney Frank's office.
Here is his website.
Phone numbers (call them all --- often!):
(202) 225-5931
(617) 332-3920
(508) 999-6462
On his site it says:
"If you would like to ask Barney to support or oppose a bill, the best way to reach him is to send an email. Or you may also call the Washington office at (202) 225-5931. We discourage constituents from sending postal mail because House security procedures can delay delivery for up to several weeks.
"To express your opinion about legislation concerning mortgages, banking, executive compensation and other financial issues, you may address an email to the House Financial Services Committee."
To contact the "Financial Services Committee." Phone: (202) 225–4247 or email them using this form.
If you would like to send an email to Barney you can fill out this form. If you do not live in his district you can use 02740 as a zip code to get to his email form. the thing about email is that it is not as good as the phone. I have no idea how much it matters but calling and writing cannot hurt. I will give out this info during the week to remind everybody to contact these people. I hope that the C+L staff understands.
...than Kramer.
Barney gave no warnings whatsoever that this financial collapse was going to happen.
...and Barney was on (nothing less than) the house banking oversite committee!!! (when it all crashed a year ago!)
First, Barney was giving warnings, as were others, in 2007. He underestimated the degree of the collapse, but so did basically every politician and every economist.
To your larger point - the response is simple: Barney was not in the majority in the House between 1995 and 2007. If it's "do nothing" blame you want to place, then it needs to go first of all to the Republicans who were running those House committees.
I got like thirty videos of Ron Paul's warnings just waiting...
post a video of a Barney warning...if you can.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=...
Dear Barney,
As you are a member of the house banking oversite comittee, I was wondering why your collegue, Ron Paul, gave Americans multiple warnings that the banking system was in big trouble, but yet you remained silent?
Nice to know he still has fans. Now, isn't he also the guy who was in favor of letting the whole financial system totally go under once the crisis hit?
no barney video's huh?...(just like I knew)
p.s. the financial system went under anyway, in spite of the trillions of taxpayer dollars...so yes Ron Paul was right about that too!
.... I will give my response that I give to all Libertarians.
Can you name me one country that has a successful Libertarian government?
Good luck.
...only about 30-40 years I guess. (so no)
.....the closest thing to a country with a Libertarian government is the good old US of A since Reagan.
How's that working out for us?
...the corporate wet dream? (where's the money?)
If libertarianism was the ticket for corporations to do whatever they want...
why do corporations give all the money to democrats and republicans?
(you need to learn to play the "follow the money game"!!! It might lead you somewhere...
That is Return on Investment.
Libertarians have no power, so they get no corporate funding.
That is the only reason. If they had any power, the corps would love their "laissez-faire" platform for corporations.
You need to get out of your jammies and put on some big-boy pants.
Burnbanke's worst nightmare...
he wants to audit the fed...the most powerful bank in the world...
And I understand the attraction of Libertarianism. "No taxes and legal drugs". And I support half of that, but people being the greedy bastards they are, we need government regulation.
"Laws" to govern wall st.
100 years of "regulations" have brought to us a wall st. that is essentially unregulated!!!
.....Wall Street and Corporations. However, since Reagan, the government has been de-regulating. Things worked pretty well up until then.
You do know that Ron Paul does not support regulating industry, don't you?
It was the dismantling of all sort of regulations by the Randian love crew during the past few decades, which brought us WallStreet in all its virulent criminal capitalistic glory.
I am frankly not interested in what bullshit excuse libertarians try to come up on a daily basis to distance themselves from the clusterfuk their insane hubris has visited upon us all.
Discussing with a libertarian on economic matters, it is similar to trying to conduct an open dialogue with a wall. Difference being the wall actually performs a useful function.
Notice how we no longer have "republicans" (they are now "concerned" independent conservatives) and "libertarians" will take all sorts of plausible deniable approaches to not answer "yes" when asked if indeed they are a "libertarian."
I think milquetoast labelled himself as a "liberal tabagger" go figure....
BUY! BUY! BUY!
Survival rations, not Cramer's Crap.
You have to be kidding me, if you missed Cramer get exposed on Stewart see this
http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/03/jon-s...
Cramer will defend anything that bails out the banks and the Wall Street cabal. That is where he is from; he worked for Goldman before spinning off to a hedge fund. Everything you hear on Business News is spun positive because the taxpayer has been sacrificed to make sure Wall Street hums. So of course Geithner, Summers, and Bernanke are heros to them.
Now that these two Nostradumbasses feel good about it, I'm starting to worry.
That was kind of my feeling too.
Cramer just issued a new book - "how to get back to even!" In case you lost money following his advice all these years, don't worry - he now will get you back to even!
"For God's Sakes, Don't Listen to Me"
Do they have this book on Amazon. I need it FAST!
Well, anyone who does take Cramer's advice deserves what they get. It is way past time to start calling American citizens out for their stupidity in trusting these clowns.
If Lucy takes the football away, how many times do you still try to kick it?
I think that most are missing the point of this topic. Part of the mainstream (of who Cramer and Tweety are part of) are now declairing that Obama is correct or was correct with his stimulus package and the way he is handling the economy. If these two yahoos who represent corporate America and the the right wing, if they are saying unequivocally that the Obama policies are working and were the correct thing to do then what will the right have to bitch about?
Also the way Cramer, the right wing Friedman fan boy, says it is remarkable.
He says this after EVERY right wing son of a bitch has been saying that everything Obama has done is wrong. Every Republican (of which Cramer is one) congress person (obviously Cramer is not one), every right wing Fox pundit, every son of a bitch on CNBC (of which Cramer is one) have been saying that the stimulus was all wrong and now this fan boy (and Tweety) is saying just the opposite. BECAUSE THE OPPOSITE HAS ALWAYS BEEN TRUE!
As far as Cramer being wrong about almost everything he says has nothing to do with the post/topic. Even though it is the scariest part. ;^)
Cramer is looking gaunt. Perhaps the conscience he can't locate, is consuming him from the inside.
When unemployment hits 10% it will include Jim Cramer?
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