Financial advisors across the nation have been trying to clean up the mess that Jim Cramer made.  We had clients crying because of the panic he created.  Our phones have been ringing off the hook.  His market call on the Today Show for investors to completely liquidate out of the stock market is the most irrational market commentary I have ever heard.  At a time when a seasoned market veteran should be preaching the benefits of diversification and patience to overcome the tough times, this guy sounded more like a rookie-telling everyone to sell out after the S&P 500 had already dropped 30% for the year.  Did he ever consider that adherence to such a strategy would collapse the entire investment system as we know it.  This call might have been legitimate six months ago, but now?   His irresponsibility has no right being on television.  He is doing a disservice to the very people he portends to help-the novice investor.   

From his platform, he has the opportunity to instill confidence in a system that is better off now than it was a year ago.  Just ask Warren Buffett.  We now have the $700 billion package to prop up the mortgage security market – just like Cramer said we needed. We have interest rates down to 1.5% – just like Cramer said we needed.  On top of that we have the Fed stepping in to buy billions in commercial paper.  These structural changes provide a rebuilt foundation upon which our financials can actually reap the benefits of capitalism.  Capitalism doesn’t work without a market.  Now we have a market.  And Cramer decides to bail.  Over the ensuing months he must be held accountable for this one. 

We’ve been here before with Jim Cramer. On Thanksgiving Day 2006, my Dad and I made it a point to enjoy a nice bowl of applesauce in honor of Jim Cramer.  Why applesauce?  It is because in July 2006, with Apple stock trading at its low near $50, Cramer told his viewers that they had to pull all their money out of Apple.  “It’s turning into applesauce and I can’t have you in it.”  From that very day, the stock went on to double in price over the next four months while we were invested in option LEAPS that 20 times themselves over that span.  Once Cramer was out, we knew it was time to get in.  Believe me, applesauce never tasted so good as it did during that Thanksgiving dinner. 

It has been a rough month for NBC.  First they had to deal with the Keith Olberman/Chris Mathews debacle during the Republican National Convention and now they will be forced to deal with Jim Cramer.  There hasn’t been anyone more negatively outspoken against Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, repeatedly calling these men unsophisticated, phony, foolish, and clueless.  He deserves a taste of his own medicine.  It’s one thing to recommend selling a stock but it’s another thing to appear on a non investment show –The Today Show – and recommend to novice investors that they should run for cover and liquidate all their capital out of the stock market.  Very irresponsible.  Financial suicide.  Cramer should be suspended.