Two weeks and two rate cuts later, CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer has a revived faith in the U.S. stock market.
On January 18, Cramer appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and warned if the government didn't intervene and prevent the failure of two large insurance companies, Ambac and MBIA, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would drop 2,000 points in the upcoming weeks. Cramer isn't talking about that sort of collapse anymore.
"For months I was worried about [MBIA CFO] Chuck Chaplin and MBIA (NYSE:MBI) and ABK [Ambac Financial Group, Inc.] (NYSE:ABK)," Cramer said on the January 31 "Street Signs." "Everyone's worried about it now? Why should I be worried about it? When you have a problem on your hands and everyone's worried knows about it, [New York State Superintendent of Insurance] Eric Dinallo to [President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York] Tim Geithner, it's done. It's done."
Just two weeks ago, Cramer was adamant about a stock market crash if problems with these bond insurers weren't immediately rectified. Flash back to January 18, on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews": Cramer warned these same companies - MBIA and Ambac - would cause a 2,000-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).
"But there is an element - something that I would urge all the candidates to think about and our Treasury secretary, which is that there are a group of insurance companies that insure all these bad mortgages," Cramer said. "And, Chris, I think they're all about to go belly-up; that will cause the Dow Jones to decline 2,000 points."
Cramer also made some other surprising predictions - the revival of the financial sector and a complete reversal of the housing crisis to a "housing shortage."
"[A]ll I'm telling you is these banks are going out for a reason," Cramer said. "And the reason is because they're going to make a fortune. If we get any tick-up, I'm predicting a housing shortage and a bank stock shortage right here - housing shortage. ... I'm telling you, there will be a housing shortage a year from now. I was the first guy to tell you to burn your house down, now I'm telling you to build one."
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
The great thing about Cramer
January 31, 2008 - 20:04 ET by c5thenIf you don't like his opinion on something wait a few days or so, it will change.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
This evening....
January 31, 2008 - 20:22 ET by Prester John....Cramer sounded like the Duke brothers in the frozen concentrate orange juice pit, "Buy, buy, buy!!!".
Let thy speech be better
January 31, 2008 - 20:50 ET by rbosqueLet thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.
— Dionysius I of Syracuse
....crickets....
January 31, 2008 - 21:39 ET by VT Con Man....
Reason to Worry
January 31, 2008 - 22:32 ET by Lame CherryLast night I was watching Charlie Rose while tapping on the keyboard here.....so I apologize if I did not catch the bald headed dudes names who is running Treasury, but was a friend of Charlie.
The hairless dude though said something which astonished me. I did not know if he was lying or he actually believed it. He said he was having a conference to find out what is causing the economy to slow down so it would not happen again.
I could tell by the way Rose spoke that is this guy was a business tycoon heavyweight..........that is why I was astonished that someone worth millions and having been responsible for billions was saying they didn't know why the economy was in the crapper.
For what it is worth, the US economy is in the crapper because the Rockefellers and Rothschild cartels who own the Fed which this dude was praising have been printing money which the US and the world can not absorb. That causes inflation and it causes the dollar to drop.
When the cartels make money by printing it without production as real wealth, you get stagflation which the economy is teetering on right now.
This is all basic stuff and is not about economics, but about thieves raiding the till Americans own and then charging them interest on money stolen and leaving them the debt to pay back what they stole.
Frankly, informing an American that all they need if their name is Rockefeller is a phone to tell the Treasury to print up a few billion dollars which the Treasury then PAYS the Rockefeller banks interets on to USE THE MONEY THEY JUST PRINTED to loan it out to Americans sounds like a deal all of us would just love.
Imagine it. You tell the Treasury to print up a 100 billion, charge them 3% and you net a 300,000 dollar profit not doing a thing.
That is fractal lending at the source and it gets worse at the banking fount you are borrowing money from as they clear usually 5% for "operating expenses".
That is what is all wrong with the system and why the original Democrat, Andrew Jackson, shut down the national bank in the first place.
I can not believe that bald dude is that stupid, so it means that bald dude thinks every American is that stupid about economics and if he holds a meeting to find out........that things will be "fixed".
They are going to bust the dollar and that is what George Soros is bent on doing with his hedge funds. The cartel intends to create 3 regional currencies. Euro, Amero and Asian........that is why things are bad and that is one of the major reasons I do not like what President Bush did not do on the economy.
If he doesn't know, he should have asked a Milton Friedman student as he had a few around. Ronald Reagan did.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS