Angry Money

     Jon Stewart's dressing down of financial celebrity James Cramer four years ago was an interesting phenomenon.  Cramer is a smart, well-informed insider who has something to say.  He is also a guy who loves the sound of his own voice.  I was surprised that he didn't punch back when Stewart repeatedly slammed him as being part of the problem.  He absorbed every last bit of the beating.

     I'm not a fan of Cramer's show Mad Money, partly because I tend not to like loud people.  The guy acts  and sounds like the Wizard of Oz.  One thing I will say in his defense is that he sometimes admits when he's wrong.  There are probably tens of thousands of newsletter writers, stock pundits, gurus, trading system peddlers, advisors, call them what you will, who virtually never admit when they're wrong; and of course, anyone who repeatedly gives trading advice on specific stocks will frequently be dead wrong.

     So what's my point?  It's just that I would think Cramer (and other high profile stock advisors) would have trouble sleeping at night.  I haven't seen Mad Money in years, and maybe they run a boilerplate warning about risk of loss, so that inexperienced, naive investors don't get too carried away in the excitement of the show.  But toward the end of the Stewart interview, Cramer's defense was, "I'm not Edward R Murrow.  I'm a guy trying to do an entertainment show about business."  

     Wait, wait.  Let me stop you there.  An "entertainment" show.  You mean like when a psychic has a disclaimer (or should, anyway) "For entertainment purposes only"?  So people aren't actually supposed to take their hard-earned cash and plunk it down on some snappy growth stock in an emerging new business that you think is aces?  You mean like when those 900 numbers in the back of weekly news rags say, "For entertainment purposes only"?  So... is buying a Cramer stock pick akin to taking the "entertainer" at your local gentleman's club back to the VIP room?   To use the parlance of financial speculators:  "This stock's got legs."