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Monday,
March 2, 2009
(Cont'd from
above)...
Jim (cont'd):
I don’t know about
you but I felt it… I
felt it everywhere I
went this weekend… I
felt it when I went
out to dinner on
Friday at the local
watering hole… I
felt it at my meal
before the big Van
Morrison concert at
the Garden… and it
crushed me when
right before Van the
Man belted out the
moon dance…. a young
kid took me aside
and said that I was
right to say that we
elected a Leninist…
at least Van didn’t
castigate us for
paying us to see
him… that was a nice
switch… I felt it at
brunch when I went
to one of those
great Danny Mire
places on Sunday, he
is the guy who
created the
Hospitality Index
that we talk about
here… and I felt it
when I watched
“Slumdog
Millionaire” Sunday
afternoon, a lot of
rubies being lost
around here… at the
end of the day
today, I feel like I
exited the outhouse
in true Jamal
fashion… I felt it
when I tried to go
to sleep, good luck
without the Lunesta
Sunday night… I felt
the prices, the
screen, the action,
the sense of a
vortex down that
cannot be stopped…
of equities becoming
worthless… of
savings becoming
tattered… of a stock
market without
bottom, but this
time in slow motion…
I felt the total
lack of control that
we all feel right
now… the it is out
of my hands… the
where is the
authority… the, hey,
it is amateur hour
at our darkest
moment.
It is the feeling of
capitalism
vanishing…
businesses capsizing
under their own
weight… thanks to
administration that
doesn’t seem to
know, or maybe
doesn’t care… it is
the feeling of a
slow motion accident
that never seems to
end… and it won’t
stop… see it won’t
stop until stocks
reach absurd levels…
and too many people
too this (sound of
someone jumping)… it
won’t stop until we
get recognition from
the President that
the agenda has
caused some horrible
reaction… would it
be so hard for Obama
to come out and say
here are my goals… I
want to do this cap
and trade thing, I
want to make it so
we are being prudent
about health care, I
want to balance that
budget, I want to
raise taxes for the
wealthy, but I also
recognize that the
moment is so
perilous that maybe
we out to put the
whole agenda on
hold… until we are
more terra firma
(i.e., on more solid
ground)… he needs to
postpone it… like it
or not… cause it is
forcing everything
down… not just the
banks anymore.
Now, I am not asking
for anyone to come
in and hold stocks
up… I am not asking
for them to make us
feel that it is not
so bad… do I impress
you as a lovey
blank… let’s hold
hands… get together,
sing Kumbayah kind
of guy… just some
kind of recognition
from Obama or from
his invisible
Secretary of
Treasury, Tim
Geithner… that given
the enormous
destruction of
wealth that is
happening in this
country… much of it
now thanks to
Obama’s agenda… that
maybe it is time to
hold it back a
little… maybe do
some reconsidering…
we have failed to
cordon off the banks
from the rest of the
market because of
Obama’s actions… he
has made people
scared… yes, he has
made people afraid…
afraid about their
money… afraid to
spend… afraid that
their taxes are
going to go to high…
afraid that there is
going to be no
bottom in the
economy… hey look, I
get it… young
President, big
landslide…. vigorous
agenda… Congress
that smells
Republican blood…
might find changing
the world simply
irresistible… we all
want to change the
world… I know that I
would like to change
the world… but when
you talk about
wealth destruction…
don’t you know that
you can count me
out… look if the Dow
goes down below
6000, or even 5000,
to say nothing of
4000... I don’t want
to talk about it
going any lower than
that… because I want
to be taken
seriously… then it
will create poverty
and despair for more
than just the rich…
remember that
ownership society
thing for the last 8
years… it is about
stocks… not homes…
if we get to these
levels then regular
people that don’t
even own stocks, who
just own annuities
or life insurance
policies, may find
them worth much less
than they thought…
as the companies
that invested those
monies for future
payouts find
themselves without
the money to make
the payments… the
head of AIG said as
much today when he
talked about
problems in paying
annuities… I told
you about that guy…
I told you about
that company… but
you know what that
got me in trouble… I
had a lot of battles
to fight… I don’t
want to be slowed
down by the trouble.
I am not saying that
what is good for the
stock market is
always good for
America… but right
now it sure is…
stability matters
more than anything
else here… stability
is measured by the
stock market… that
stability has
vanished… we want to
stabilize this
market and therefore
save ordinary
people’s savings…
the President has
got to put his
agenda on the hold
button… at least
until we got into a
place where it no
longer feels that
the economy is
falling apart… you
can’t trash the
market, along with
housing, without
causing a tremendous
surge in poverty…
maybe social unrest…
and Obama is doing
both with his budget
of his… the stock
market isn’t
everything… but it
does matter… and I
am seeing no signs
from the
administration that
they even
acknowledge that it
does.
The last time that
the Dow Jones
Average hit 4000, in
1994... okay, 4000
we still get 2800
points there… but
the last time at
4000 in 1994 it was
a great new world
ahead of us… with
the peace dividend
from the fall of the
Soviet Union… the
remarkable blooming
of Capitalism across
the world… we had a
total reputation of
Communism… and a
mightier move ahead
for tech… PC passed
the main frame in
power, where email
replaced snail-mail,
where the internet
took the world by
storm, where cell
phones went from
something from that
the rich had, to
something that you
and I had… and
perhaps the most
important thing of
all, the public
discovered stocks as
a place to put their
retirement money…
and corporations
handed off their
pension obligations
to the people… in
the forms of IRA’s
and 401K’s, and said
listen you take care
of it yourselves…
and that money
almost entirely went
to the stock market,
because long term
investing was where
it was at.
Now, despite the
bullishness of a guy
like Warren Buffett
about what is coming
…. the future ahead
of 1994, I picked
that because that
could be where we
are going… was a
heck of a lot
brighter than the
future seems right
now… with what seems
like a policy of
government mandated
wealth destruction…
on top of the worst
economic environment
since the Great
Depression…
Here is the bottom
line…
▼ ▼
▼ ▼
▼
 The Bottom Line!:
Given the times that
we are in… we can’t
afford the
President’s agenda…
we can’t afford a
totally absent
Treasury Secretary…
we certainly, well,
we can’t afford
their refusal to
acknowledge that a
broken stock market
is a huge problem.
President Obama
should take a break
from his agenda to
give this market a
chance to
stabilize...
[verbatim recap]
▼ ▼
▼ ▼
▼
Jim went on after
this segment to take
questions from
callers, and
responded with his
comments...
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Q:
What I want to
suggest is that
stocks like
Bristol-Myers,
Verizon, AT&T,
General Mills have
not hit their 52
week lows since
October 10th, and
what I am thinking
is that the market
will not hit a low
until those stocks
hit another 52 week
low. What do you
think?
Jim:
You have horse
sense… I think those
stocks could hit
those levels… but by
the way, in every
single case, I would
be a buyer of
those…. why, because
then you get
gigantic yields, and
you get companies
that I think are
absolutely without a
doubt, would I call
them Obama
resistant… notice
that I did not call
them Obama proof,
because that is like
saying a lead lining
is going to stop a
nuclear fallout… and
we both now that
that lead lining
does not have
everything good…
Scranium 90 is a
pretty powerful
element… but I like
your thinking, and
we will wait until
it gets there… and
then we will deal
with it.
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Q:
Cramer, why are you
placing so much
blame on the present
economy on Obama?
Jim:
I guess what I am
saying is that we
were doing better
before that agenda…
the budget, the
budget made it so
that a lot of areas
that I considered to
be safe are no
longer safe… do I
favor a lot of his
policies… at the
right time, yes, and
you will hear later
in this show… I
actually do think
that a lot of them
are right… it is
just not the right
moment… cause right
now we have got that
thing going, I don’t
want that thing like
they have over there
in Germany where
they are torching
the BMW’s, and they
are torching the
Mercedes Benz… that
is not what I want
to see… so I feel
like maybe we out to
take a break from
the agenda and give
this market a chance
to stabilize…
because otherwise
what is going to
happen is that I am
going to have to
come out here every
night and I am going
to have to talk
about gold, and
silver, and cash…
because cash not
only is king… but I
think I might
alleviate it to…
well, there aren’t a
lot of other pieces
on the board that
have a lot of
action… but the
Queen is pretty
good.
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[verbatim recap]
[end of segment]
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