Turns out Jim Cramer is pretty down on the idea of bank nationalization. “We must take the debate out of the hands of the dreamer academics, and into the hands of practical business people, no matter how much we despise them for getting us into this fix in the first place.”
In this video interview he says nationalizing Citi, BofA and Wells Fargo would be the “end of capitalism.”
Curious what others think. I’m not knowledgeable enough to evaluate what Cramer says about the collateral damage to insurance companies and the entire real economy. His history of the 1930s is completely whacked. But that’s out of his area of specialty. Alas, I suspect his macroeconomics may be no better.
Late Update: TPM Reader BM not feeling the love for Cramer: “If the voice of the opposition to ‘nationalization’ is Jim Cramer, than I think that works as a pro to go through with the absorption of the insolvent banks. The man is consistently wrong on everything. “Subprime, a bunch of hullabaloo!” -> “Market’s doing fine, don’t worry about it” -> “TAKE ALL OF YOUR MONEY OUT NOW”. Let alone the infatuation he had with Sears. I’ve actually made a point to do the opposite of whatever a screaming maniac says, and it has suited me well so far. TPM has been great info with the interviews of all the economists btw, thank you for picking up where tv outlets are failing.”
Latter Update: TPM Reader CG doesn’t see it either: “Cramer is an almost perfect contrarian indicator. He is virtually always wrong about everything. His lemming instinct to both lead and follow the herd off of a cliff is uncanny. With my clients, all I need say is, ‘Cramer said this is a good idea’ and they run for the exits. To me he has always been an idiot that is useful, but now I guess he is truly playing the Republican and Banking communities role as useful idiot. He truly is the Rush Limbaugh of investing – bellicose, without shame and always wrong. Here is a link if you are interested.”
