The great Mary Peretz writes:
I’ve known Jim for more than 30 years. We’ve had spats two times. He was responsible once. I, the other. I’ve done business with him and made money with him. And we started The Street.com together. He is a trusted and loving friend.
He is now being battered in the press. Mostly by people whose careers are built on ridiculing others. I happened to have watched the “Mad Money” show in which he spoke about Bear Stearns. He did not not not not say that you needn’t worry if you had stock in Bear Stearns. He said you need not worry if you had a brokerage account with Bear Stearns. That was true… and still is true. But we all utter silly enough words in the ordinary course of life that we don’t have to invent them, and Jim has his share of them. I do, too.
It’s not clear what he means by “brokerage account.” Bear effectively had no retail arm. It had an asset management arm, but that likely excluded investors with under 500K (or possibly much more) in the manner of a hedge fund. How likely is it that a high roller was writing into Cramer for advice?
Moreover, during Cramer’s speech, they showed a large graphic of Bear Stearns’ stock price.
Finally, the explanation that the viewer’s mention of “liquidity” indicates a fear of losing money in a brokerage account is simply not plausible. Bear’s problems were reported to have to do with liquidity and that is almost certainly what the viewer was referring to.
Now, I know next-to-nothing about finance. But I conferred with a senior exec of a large hedge fund about this. Peretz’s claims are not believable.
Marty Pertez has been allowed to rant and rave at the New Republic for nearly 35 years. His views on the Middle East are extreme, but anyone who criticizes them is an anti-Semite.
What’s his excuse for his flimsy defense of Jim Cramer? The saddest thing to me is how loath the “illustrious” New Republic alum — Ryan Lizza, Mike Kinsley, Rick Hertzberg, etc. — are to criticize him. The New Republic deserves to disappear.
4tehlulz
>>The great Mary Peretz writes:
lol
PaulB
What I found most interesting was the complete disconnect between the Cramer we can see for ourselves on "Mad Money" and the Cramer that Peretz describes. That Cramer may well exist but he sure the hell isn’t the one that’s on television.
Svensker
Are you a serious Richard Thompson fan?
Michael G
What I take away from this is that Jon Stewart, in providing context for some jokes, is a better journalist than this dude.
schrodinger's cat
Who is Marty Peretz and why is he important? How many people read the New Republic anyway?
Jon Stewart’s take-down of Cramer was full of win! Wish someone had skewered Rumsfeld and co. when they were feeding us BS about Iraq.
El Cid
In its day the New Republic used a lot of ink defending Reagan’s wars against Central American and Southern African civilians (except wanting it all to be just a bit less bloody) and seeing its main role, then as now, as protecting the hawk and business establishment from the crazy left.
That’s what they do. It’s what they did then, it’s what they do now. It was a bit different 80 years ago, but not completely.
JenJen
Seems to me there’s only one excuse for this defense: Peretz and Cramer are cronies; Peretz was one of the first major investors to Cramer’s first hedge fund; they created TheStreet.com together, and Peretz feels like he’s the one responsible for Cramer’s entree into the media class.
So he doesn’t want to go down with the ship. I mean, that’s really all there is to it… who wouldn’t have expected Peretz to eventually attempt a defense of Cramer?
DougJ
Yes.
I was very disappointed when someone I spoke with here who said he loved great guitarists had never heard of him.
gbear
@Svensker:
Is there any other kind of Richard Thompson fan?
DougJ, aren’t you on vacation? Not in America? Why are you blogging about this?
John Cole
All I have to say is that considering this is Peretz attacking Stewart, it is just a damned good thing Stewart is Jewish, or we know what we would be hearing.
gbear
DougJ, you really need to come back from London wearing this T-Shirt.
ChrisB
Peretz’s defense of Cramer was completely debunked by The Daily Show, which showed several other instances where Cramer was clearly recommending the purchase of Bear Stearns stock. (I’m pretty sure it was the day after Cramer responded to Stewart’s initial attack.)
What Cramer and now Peretz tried to do was to focus on one clip where Cramer was plausibly saying that your money was safe at Bear Stearns while ignoring other instances where Cramer thought Bear Stearns stock was a buy, shortly before the firm failed.
dslak
@John Cole: You, Sir, are apparently unfamiliar with the character attacks from quarters such as Peretz’s on one Norman Finkelstein.
Grace Nearing
Is there any other kind of Richard Thompson fan?
No. Except for the fact that he would be totally appalled by my asking, I would love to examine the calluses on his fingertips.
ronathan richardson
Marty clearly turned off his TV in shame after Stewart’s first clip of the "Bear Stearns is Fine" line, because other clips include "at 69 bucks I’m not giving up" as well as "I’m asking people who are watching this video to buy Bear Stearns…I think this one has a very big upside, very little downside."
Bulworth
What irritates me about CNBC isn’t its failed prognistications, as silly as those look now, but its more general cheerleading of Wall Street and its various indicators as some kind of god. And now that that god has imploded, CNBC’s munchkins are blaming the poor, those who have lost, or are at risk of losing their homes ("losers") and trying to make hay over "earmarks". The fact is, their god has blown it. Their world is falling to pieces–and threatening to take most of us down with them–but they’re still talking as if Wall Street’s problems, the problems with their glorious "market", are someone else’s fault. We are not worthy of their glorious "market".
va
I believe Peretz’ claim hinges on "not not not not." It’s not insistent repetition, it’s a quadruple negation whose meaning is clear: Cramer did say you needen’t worry.
John Brown
I have worked for Wall Street for almost 25 years. As a matter of survival, I learned early in my career that despite the glamour and brainpower behind the investment banks, Wall Street is nothing more than a well financed marketing machine. This would not necessarily be a bad thing except that giving advice is part of the sales pitch.
Not one major firm called the current financial panic despite a huge investment in economic and company specific research. Sadly, this should come as no surprise. Wall Street’s motto has always been to sell product first and ask questions later. The ’87 crash was preceded by the invention and marketing of S&P futures contracts; the S&L crisis was driven by limited partnerships created to take advantage of the pre-Regan federal tax code and the insurance industry nearly imploded after Wall Street sold them billions of dollars in junk bonds.
All of this could have been avoided had the financial press been doing it’s job. However, like our mainstream press, access is everything and the financial press is much more interested in interviewing the CEO of Aetna instead of a contrary figure like Michael Moore on health care. People like Cramer are to finance what Rush Limbaugh is to politics, both are paid entertainers whose only motive is to increase the size of their audience.
Comrade Stuck
The sumbitch is stealing my loopety loop linguistic liberal loon lines/
Jay
Am I wrong for liking Jonathan Chait? And why would he still be at TNR if he’s as good as I think?
Jim
Yup. Cramer claimed the original clip TDS showed was him talking about people who had money managed by Bear, Stewart conceded the point, and found another clip of Cramer very specifically, loudly and hyperactively recommending the purchase of BS stock.
DougJ
Good question.
dslak
@Jay: 1. Yes. 2. Maybe you’re thinking of a different Chait.
kid bitzer
"The saddest thing to me is how loathe the “illustrious” New Republic alum—Ryan Lizza, Mike Kinsley, Rick Hertzberg, etc.—are to criticize him."
i think you mean "loath", the adjective, not "loathe", the verb.
joe from Lowell
I had a TNR subscription for a few years. I finally just let it lapse. They even called me to try to get me back.
As it turns out, baselessly accusing a good part of your readership of anti-Semitism isn’t a good way to maintain circulation numbers.
Who knew?
DougJ
@kb
Thanks.
jcricket
So there were two (really three now, counting Cramer’s appearance) Stewart v. Cramer segments. In the first one Stewart shows Cramer saying Bear Stearns is fine, don’t pull out your money (and then that Bear Sterns failed like a couple days later).
Then in the next clip Stewart "apologizes" saying that Cramer didn’t, in fact, specifically say Bear Sterns stock was going up… followed by a video of Cramer saying exactly that only a month or so earler ("buy Bear at 69, it’s going to 100"), followed by Bear Stearns collapse to $2 (and then $0).
I only point this out to say that it was some pretty weak sauce to begin with (claiming that Cramer was really talking about the safety of any money you had in Bear Stearns), but in that 150 hours of video/week there are probably 1000 examples of idiotic prognostications.
Stewart is right, Cramer is wrong, and the entire money-porn industry should go out of business. They add no value to the marketplace, and in fact probably encourage bad investment behavior. Here’s an article from the chief investment officer at Yale demolishing the entire CNBC/active-trading industry.
Comrade Stuck
To few juicers signing up at the yahoo NCAA b-ball tournament. You ain’t communists are you?
Bob In Pacifica
Svensker, what’s a serious Richard Thompson fan? Someone who doesn’t laugh?
Rick Taylor
The only persuasive defense I could make of Cramer is that for all of his faults, there are people out there who are far far more deserving of public ridicule shunning, for example people like the executives of the unit of AIG that brought the company and the economy down by placing hundreds of billions of dollars of guarantees on hedge funds with no collateral to back them up, and who are now still employed and collecting millions in bonuses. Via Digby
Rick Taylor
The only persuasive defense I could make of Cramer is that for all of his faults, there are people out there who are far far more deserving of public ridicule and shunning, for example people like the executives of the unit of AIG that brought the company and the economy down by placing hundreds of billions of dollars of guarantees on hedge funds with no collateral to back them up, and who are now still employed and collecting millions in bonuses, and who will never be publicly roasted on the Daily Show. Via Digby
over_educated
Holy carp!
Did you see the story in the post where AIG basically told Geitner to kiss off when he told them to stop paying tens of millions in bonuses to their staff?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/14/AR2009031401394.html?hpid=topnews
Wow we are talking Louis the XVI level disconnect here. Is this real? I mean, is this the real world? I can’t believe that people are this dense.
Edit: well I guess someone has.
Miriam
I am just livid that AIG is giving out $100 million in bonuses. We own that f***ing company. That is OUR money. Those people deserve to be getting $300 a week like the rest of the people on unemployment – not hundreds of thousands of dollars for WHAT? Ruining the economy? Killing their company? This is just too much. I bet the company is not required to pay them bonuses if they fire them. So fire them already.
bayville
Needless to say, Peretz is an idiot.
Cramer was bullish on Bear Stearns 8 months earlier, when the fu#king stock was trading at $130/share.
Laura W
@Comrade Stuck: Can you direct me to the tutorial for Stoopid Chicks, pleeze?
jcricket
Right – the whole "we have to pay a lot to retain the best" line is false for two reasons:
1) These fucking morons got us into this mess – so if they’re the best, we’re in serious trouble
2) Where else are these people going to go? Wall St. is shedding 200,000+ jobs – and those aren’t coming back in the near term (if ever).
This is the problem with "quasi-nationalization". When the FDIC puts banks in receivership it can do all sort of contract cancellation (see just how well JP Morgan did when it got to take over WaMu with like no costs). It’s what we should have done with AIG.
And if the laws don’t let us do what we need, write new laws. Not that hard.
I’m generally not of the opinion that mucking with people’s salaries is a useful tool, but these are unprecedented times and they call for unprecedented measures.
Warren Terra
As pointed out upthread, this just isn’t the case – although that Jim Cramer isn’t Jewish might have helped prevent this particular kneejerk response.
I cancelled my TNR subscription when the magazine published Andrew Sullivan’s endorsement of Dubya’s position during the Florida recount. Haven’t regretted it, really. I don’t know whether the magazine needs to die – it publishes a lot of good people – but it certainly needs to change. The fact that Peretz apparently bought it back recently isn’t a good sign, although as the people he’d sold it to were even more conservative in their politics than Peretz is makes that particular development something of a wash.
Mike in NC
TNR. Washington Post. Slate. They all seem to have been in a long nosedive for years now.
liberal
@John Cole:
Huh? There’s always the "self-hating Jew" ploy.
AhabTRuler
The Washington Post is pimping the print edition at my local grocery store. When offered "Free paper?" I wavered between responding with "Lick my balls," and "Print is dead." Instead I just sorta grumbled and shuffled off.
Comrade Stuck
@Laura W:
Click the link. then click create a new bracket button. If you have a yahoo account, your email address should show with a spot to name your bracket. Type laura, or whatever and click save at bottom of page. You can’t pick your choices until the teams are named.
NonyNony
@AhabTRuler:
I probably would have responded with something about no longer having a parrot, so what possible use would the Washington Post be to me now. But then I tend to be a grumpy asshole when I go grocery shopping. The cost of produce in winter never puts me in a good mood.
Laura W
@Comrade Stuck: Swell. Thanks. Just lemme know when I have to go do something again.
And if you know which teams have green uniforms, I’ll need that info too, as I will base my picks upon that, primarily.
AhabTRuler
Oh, I would quite enjoy shopping if it weren’t for the other people. That, and I have to drive to the store, and I also hate people when they drive.
J. Michael Neal
Huh? Conference tournaments don’t even end until next week, except CHA. All I care about right now is the Gophers finishing off St. Cloud tonight.
Wini
@J. Michael Neal: Do you know the score? No t.v. coverage. (right?)
Comrade Stuck
@J. Michael Neal:
Brackets announced tomorrow at 6 pm est
Play begins thursday
J. Michael Neal
@Wini: It’s on FSN starting right now. It is tape delayed because of the Wild game.
So don’t anyone mention the final.
Comrade Stuck
@Laura W:
You will go far grasshopper:)
J. Michael Neal
@Comrade Stuck: How can we have brackets tomorrow? Do they just declare that BU is the #1 seed?
Of course, if we stop right now, the Gophers are in and BC is out, so it’s all good.
J. Michael Neal
I don’t know. That could mean that she’s rooting for Michigan State, and it could mean that she’s not. I suspect the former. That’s the wrong choice.
Comrade Stuck
@J. Michael Neal:
Yep, pretty much
And now that I’ve trolled this thread to an untimely death, it’s off to BSG and gurl hero Starbuck.
sorry dougj
Laura W
@J. Michael Neal:
Don’t..root…for…Michigan State…
Brilliant! My first hot tip. I feel like I have a real path to victory now.
Let’s play ball!
Maus
Duh. Politico too, while we’re at it.
jax
This is sick. Why in the world are we helping these companies that keep sending millions to people who do not know how to run a company? Furthermore, I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg–there are so many ways these funds are hurting ‘average Joes’ but benefiting those in high places. Look what Enterprise rent-a-car did to get bailout funds:
http://www.butasforme.com/2009/02/25/alert-enterprise-rent-a-car-may-have-fired-employees-as-fake-evidence-when-lobbing-for-bailout-money/
Brandon T
I canceled my TNR subscription like a year and a half ago, and replaced it with The Nation. Haven’t regretted it. While TNR has been reduced to circulating tons of free copies to maintain "relevance", The Nation’s subscribership keeps growing…
Comrade Kevin
@Brandon T: I like an awful lot of what is in The Nation, but I can’t bring myself to subscribe again as long as Alexander Cockburn is still employed by them.
PaulB
That hasn’t been reported enough. And keep in mind that Stewart’s original target wasn’t Cramer, it was Santelli, and the sheer chutzpah of the guy for his "populist" rant about bailing out homeowner "losers," and yet couldn’t seem to muster any ire for the trillion-dollar bailout of the financial institutions that he himself supported and pushed.
bootlegger
@Comrade Stuck: We’ve got 10 and the brackets don’t come out until the morrow. I know there are way more sports fans than this. For the double-x chromosomes, one of the gentlemen is already begging in another thread to not hurt our fragile male egos too badly. I didn’t see our host or any of the front pagers though.
Your mother is an hamster and your father smells of elderberries! Now sign up or I will taunt you a second time!
bootlegger
@jcricket:
Except for the salaries of useless tools spending our tax money.
Laura W
@bootlegger:
I thought it was Fuckhead who said that?
Oh, never mind….
o kanis
In 1996, Peretz bankrolled and cofounded TheStreet.com with Cramer. On shaky ground, TheStreet’s share is now below $2, and it’s ceo, Thomas Clark, resigned a couple of days ago. See also here for more on Peretz and Cramer…
http://tinyurl.com/33y7b6
While at Goldman, Cramer wrote short financial pieces for The New Republic. Among them was a positive book review for Peretz’s friend Ivan Boesky. However, Cramer became unsatisfied with life at Goldman: he preferred picking stocks to selling the picks of the Goldman Research Department. In 1986, after a negative article about Cramer appeared in The New York Times, Cramer decided to leave Goldman Sachs and set up his own hedge fund with Larry Levy. Peretz, who still had money with Cramer, helped Cramer’s new fund raise capital.
Brian J
Are they talking about the same show where Cramer discussed Bear Stearns? It’s quite possible, even very likely, that Peretz is simply not talking about the same show Stewart used as an example.
bootlegger
@Laura W: Dude, already gettin’ all up in our grills! That’s ok, I never clean my grill, especially the grease trap, so if you’re in my grill…what’s that? Not that kind of grill? So much for the Michelle Bachman’s "Ebonics for Dummies".
Wini
@bootlegger: This is gonna be fun. Just remember when I start losing that it’s because I intentionally threw "some" games…
bootlegger
@Wini: Trying to avoid that Million Dollar prize? I don’t blame you, what with Obamacommie raising your taxes why even bother.
slightly_peeved
Would you look at this hypocrisy? Apparently, if a guy builds his career on trading stocks, he’s a valuable resource and we should listen to his advice on how to trade.
In that case, if a guy builds his career ridiculing people, surely we should listen to his advice on who to ridicule. He’s the professional, after all.
Nellcote
“Friday brought more tumult for CNBC anchor Jim Cramer, when the chief executive of his online financial news site, The Street.com, resigned.”
Comrade Kevin
@o kanis: That is a really interesting article.
Svensker
@Grace Nearing:
Ummmm hmmmmm.
DougJ, I hadn’t heard of RT until about 2 years ago, and I was buying records back in the Fairport days. I’ve been making up for lost time.
Comrade Darkness
@Rick Taylor, exactly. We sent Martha Stewart to jail for what? one call to her broker. One freakin’ call. By that metric we’re going to need a prison colony somewhere.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
I want Lyle Lovett’s guitar.
Laura W
@Steeplejack: I want Lyle Lovett’s mind.
I got into him relatively late in life (2000) and some days there is just no one as fun to listen to as Lyle. "Live in Texas" is usually on the rotation in the car and on the iPod. Rickie Lee Jones shows up in gorgeous voice on "North Dakota". He returns the favor on her "Live at Red Rocks" by showing up for "Love Is Gonna Bring Us Back Alive."
(But I’ll just bet you know all that.)
Jon H
"and the sheer chutzpah of the guy for his "populist" rant "
I move that Santelli’s brand of "populism" be branded "knobulism".
gopher2b
With all due respect, anyone who bought or held Bears because Cramer told them to (in a 25 second segment on a television show) is an idiot and deserved to lose all their money.
This scape goating of Cramer is lame.
I know of virtually no one that is not at least partly to blame…..even Johnny Taxpayer