"I'm trying," he told Jon Stewart, on The Daily Show.
But he didn't say what he was really trying to do.
He didn't say that he was "trying" to distance himself from
those same manipulators of markets who were once his closest
friends. He didn't say he was "trying" to pretend
he did not receive a SEC subpoena in 2006 involving his effort to
manipulate stocks. He did not say he was "trying" to speak
out against crimes he himself brazenly admitted to committing on an
internet program, "Wall Street Confidential."
"A lot of times when I was short, I would create a level of
activity beforehand that would drive the futures. . . . It's a fun
game." Cramer went on to talk about spreading false
rumors and said that "no one else in the world would ever
admit that, but I don't care." Seconds later, he admits, "I'm
not going to say that on TV," referring to his show "Mad Money" on
CNBC.
That video, by the way, has always been distributed on the
internet (while Jim Cramer's TheStreet.com continues to try and
eliminate it on YouTube) but never made it onto television until a
comedian, of all people, confronted Mr. Cramer about it last week,
several years after it was surfaced.
But let's get back to business. Mr. Cramer admitted to
being a manipulator himself. Mr. Cramer was once both friend
and
colleague of the hedge fund manipulators, such as
convicted felon Marc Rich. Mr. Cramer received an SEC
subpoena along with some of the other alleged manipulators in
2006 (he destroyed the document on camera).
Who are these manipulators?
They are naked short sellers, corrupt financial journalists and
analysts and almost all of those who go out of their way
to defend the elimination of the short selling uptick rule among
many other short selling regulations.
Mr. Cramer was once one of those people. He quietly
admitted to it on "Wall Street Confidential" and was
working alongside the primary suspects of the crime.
Former employees of his, like Nicholas Maier who worked for Cramer
until 1998 and wrote a book called, Trading with the Enemy:
Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer’s Wall Street (New
York: HarperCollins, 2002), have even come out accusing him of
being a criminal who would naked short sell stocks and ignore the
uptick rule.
But now he is our advocate. He is now the self
proclaimed champion for the reinstatement of the uptick rule, for
example. Excuse me for being a little uncomfortable with this
idea. It sounds like a weasel is trying to cover his
tracks. In an effort to erase the past, he is now our
advocate.
Mr. Cramer now screams about the do-nothing SEC. He knows
all about it because it was the same do-nothing SEC that did
nothing about his crimes. Again, excuse me for being a little
bothered that the suspect criminal is now a crusader. Worse
than that, he is now claiming to be the primary
crusader. He completely separates himself and his experience
as a manipulator with his new-found advocacy and even tries to take
personal credit for it, as an act of further
self-promotion:
"I was the only guy out here screaming that the shorts need to
be reigned in and investigated."
Well, it's time people start screaming that Jim Cramer finally
be reigned in and investigated. A man who turns on his former
friends in such a dramatic way would surely start naming names if
he was formerly charged with crimes. Then, maybe his advocacy
would be worth something.