Mad Man Defends His Call on Bear Stearns

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Jim Cramer notoriously told an emailer who had asked (a week before the crunch) whether to pull his money out of Bear Stearns:

Dear Jim: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? --Peter

Cramer says: “No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear.”


Like Bush's ever-evolving defense of the Iraq invasion, Cramer hasn't batted an eye. You see, what he meant was, once the Fed bailed out Bear, it would be fine. And that wouldn't even have been necessary, if the Fed had simply bought $200 billion worth of Fannie Mae paper, as Cramer suggested.

I admit I'm not an expert on the financial sector, but I think someone saying that Bear is "not in trouble" was definitely wrong. I don't think you can really get around that.

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