CNBC's Jim Cramer Responds

I don't subscribe to Realmoney, theStreet.com's paid site. I used to, but with the amount of financial commentary on the web these days, it's not a must-read for me anymore. But Jim Cramer (not pictured) writes a blog at Realmoney, and after last night's appearance on Jon Stewart's Daily Show, Cramer blogged back (excerpt at Hullabaloo). Draw your own conclusions.

CNBC has been taking a lot of flak lately. I think many financial types have been complaining about the network for quite awhile, but now that the country is in a horrible bear market and some of the hosts (Cramer and Rick Santelli) have been criticizing Obama, the network is on the national stage.

CNBC has guests on who voice their opinions. It's only natural that mutual fund managers are bullish. Their mutual fund charters demand that they be fully invested all of the time.

Corporate CEOs are also always cheerleading their company. Selling and marketing their business is part of their job descriptions. We're never going to see a CEO who says "Boy, we're sucking wind and cooking the books to make it appear as rosy as possible." Won't happen. Their stock would dive and they'd lose their job. The board of directors would fire them.

I still watch CNBC. Especially around the market open. But I flip to Fox Business News quite a bit. Much more sincere, calm and rational, with less corporate cheerleading. Emphasis on the "less" part of that last sentence.

Power Nap

• On CNBC, they're talking about where the bottom is. I mean, quit guessing.  The only bottom nearby is on Melissa Lee's chair.  Aren't we all a little tired of seeing these folks on CNBC every hour of the day telling us the bottom is in or at hand?
• I didn't watch the Grammy's, but I guess Robert Plant sung with Alison Krauss.  On February 9th, Jay Leno joked on his show,  "When did Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin turn into the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz?"  See picture.  Whoa.
• From above link, Robert (Plant)again was confronted with the inevitable question Sunday in thepost-Grammy interview tent about his future involvement in any Zeppelintour. "How old are you, man?" Plant responded. "Because youlook older than me. You try to do 'Communication Breakdown' in thesepants."
• I ate a PBJ, and didn't notice until the end that the crust was a little moldy.  Nice.

TGIF Randomosity

• The stock market again reverses late in the day. This time to the positive.  Decliners leading advancers, though.  Maybe shorts booking gains ahead of the weekend.  It's been another bad week for the market.
• Bloomberg says  U.S. stocks rose and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rebounded from an 11-year low as NBC News reported President-elect Barack Obama will nominate New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury.
• Timothy Geithner. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York president is widely praised for his management of the Wall Street meltdown. He also worked at Treasury for 13 years starting in 1988.  Hmm.  Management of the meltdown, huh.  Hmm.
• The new iPhone operating system 2.2 is out!  Some issues and bugs.  What's new?  Podcast downloads!  Cool.
• Well, I did my tax loss selling for the year near the lows today, and reinvested in like-kind things.  We'll see if I get to do that again in December...
• "We likely are in for a protracted period of poor economic performance," said Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
• Court says Shell can't drill near Alaska.  Sure, oil prices are down now.  Anyone think that'll last?  Not me.
• China fears job riots.  China's job outlook is "grim," and the global financial crisis could cause more layoffs and more labor unrest until the country's economic stimulus package kicks in next year, the nation's minister of human resources and social security said Thursday.
• TGIF!

Waiting on Obama Randomosity

• You want stimulus? Extension of unemployment benefits and food stamps.  How's that for an economic stimulus plan?  Can  you buy a car with food stamps?  Lets think about this.  What if grocery stores sold bananas for $25,000 and threw in a free car?  Could you use food stamps then?
• And no sales tax on food purchases!  "Can I help you load these groceries in YOUR BRAND NEW CAR?!"
• Call it a recession already!  Nearly 1.2 million jobs have been lost this year. The unemployment rate is at its highest level since 1994. Retail sales were dismal last month and for automakers, October was the worst month in more than a quarter-century.  But guess what? The United States is still not officially in a recession.
• Obama to meet with "economic brain trust."  Uh oh, the three most feared words in the English language.  To paraphrase Ronald Reagan.
• Hey, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Willie Parker is hurt again.  Looks like Mewelde Moore will get the start.  I still have Mewelde on the fantasy roster!  Yewooowowowowo.
• From RevShark via Intuitive Traders, While I’m sure Obama will be upbeat, it is very likely that during the transition phase of the presidency, he will be working to lower expectations about what he can accomplish. Setting the bar low will go a long way in the future perception of Obama’s success.
• Yeah, that'd make sense.  Set the expectations lower and exceed them. Okay, Obama is on...

Paradox of Thrift

• Disney's 4th-quarter income fell 13%.  Perhaps because $DIS cartoon characters were too busy out there registering to vote.  C'mon, Pluto!  Quit humping Obama's leg and start bringing in some revenues!
• Nice job by Eddie Royal last night, for those of us with ER on our fantasy teams.  Woo.
• Jobs data horrible in every way.
• $MSFT says "no thanks not interested" to $YHOO.  “We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us and we moved on,” Ballmer said. “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.”
• Playboy's Girl Next Door Kendra Wilkinson is engaged to Philadelphia Eagle WR Hank Baskett!  No wonder  he's looked a bit lethargic on the field lately.  Drop him from fantasy line-ups.
• Jobs data likely to get worse before getting better. 

The employment report adds to the likelihood that the current economic downturn will be the worst in a quarter century. The October unemployment rate of 6.5% already broke through the 6.3% high reached in the aftermath of the 2001 recession. It’s the highest since March 1994, following a downturn that took the jobless rate as high as 7.8%.

...

Today’s jobs report offers more evidence that the economy is in the midst of a downturn that will not only be deeper than the recessions that ended in 1991 and 2001, but may approach, or perhaps surpass, the severity of the long recession that ended in 1982.

That’s a possibility that would put many Americans into unfamiliar territory. Of the 181 million people in the U.S. last year that were 20 to 64 years old – roughly working age – only 42% were 20 or over in 1982. Arguably, a lot of people don’t know how they should respond to a severe downturn, since they’ve never really experienced one.

Maybe that’s not such an entirely bad thing. While individually people might be better off skimping and saving, if everybody becomes miserly the economy enters the realm of what the economist John Maynard Keynes called the paradox of thrift. That would make a bad recession even worse.

• You know, right now debt is the enemy.  It's our personal enemy.  I know I don't want debt heading into a period where our jobs are threatened.  Back in the early 1980's I remember employers not only letting staff go, but cutting working hours for those who remained.  I recall my dad receiving a 20% pay cut (fridays off) for over a year.  That's where we could be headed.  Get rid of debt however possible.
• "Paradox of thrift."  And I think that's what happened in Japan in the 1990s, too.
• Staying the course on investments. I'm feeling down about the economy like everyone else now.  The news is overwhelming.  Last week's rally has been crushed in just two days after the election.  But no time to do anything radical with the stock holdings.  Adding some, moving some around from place to place, etc.  Same as always.

Oh, Credit Trouble You Say?

• The "oil down =stocks up" model took a breather today, but it's back to the "Oh my God the financials are in trouble!" model.  ... the financial sector was hit by more evidence of ongoing credit-related trouble, with the damage partially offset by crude's retreat to $113 a barrel.  "How this story plays out really depends on whether the weakness in financials bleeds out to other sectors in the economy," said Linda Duessel, equity strategist at Federated Investors.
• This must certainly give the bears an emotional bump.  They were warning yesterday that the last two times the market closed above the 200dma, it was just a head fake and the market crashed. 
• But boys and girls, IBD says it is NOT a distribution day.
• Will run the Long-Short model scans later tonight.
• Microsoft's "blue screen of death" strikes Olympics opening ceremony!  Classic!
• Consumer's confidence 1-point away from an all-time low!
• Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama to kick off Democratic National Convention.  Pelosi is out trying to sell her Pulitzer (ranked #1929 on Amazon).  And I thought Michelle was in seclusion in a cave somewhere near the Pakistan border.  Where's she been?

8/8/08 Really Big News

• Yeah, yeah.  China olympics in Beijing.  Thousands of folks dressed up in costumes and banging on drums.  Got it.  Nice LCD screen, by the way.
• Meanwhile, the big news is the signing of Chad Pennington (not pictured) by the Miami Dolphins.  Pennington was immediately named the starter.
• The announcement sent the DOW up over 300 points.
• I don't know what you're thinking, but there has to be a way to trade these NFL QB moves.
• Heading into the weekend, I remain 100% invested.  We're heading into options week, and it's hard to imagine that could add any volatility to what we've been seeing.
• The Long-Short system remains on a buy.  Duh, of course.  Nearing the top of the range so it'll be interesting to see how it acts next week.
• I think a lot of IBD followers are still on the sidelines.  We did have the confirmation day, but we haven't had the kind of leadership one would like to see in a New Bull Market.
• I think the Fed is on the sidelines until after the election.  Maybe some random comment about inflation or such, but they'll steer clear of The Main Event in November.
• John Edwards says, well... He did it.  With Rielle Hunter.  Another headlines grabber for awhile.  Aren't we getting a little numb to this stuff by now?
• Oh, that's Dolphins rookie cheerleader Jennifer!

Minimum Day!

• The market has a minimum day today! I heard Mark Haines mention this morning that the day before exchange holidays are up 80% of the time.  Of course as I mentioned last, Norm Fosback has a seasonal investing methodology that would dictate that you be in the market the two trading days before exchange holidays.  Bingo this time!
• Did you see Melissa Lee this morning on Squawk Box?  Maybe it was a little chilly on the floor today.  "The air conditioning is working!"  Just saying.  Sorry that I don't have a snap of here in that blue top she had on this morning!
• Lewis "Scooter" Libby gets his prison term commuted, and the left is outraged!  Ever heard of Mark Rich, folks?  This is what Presidents do.  There may even be a full pardon coming.
• Alyssa Milano is bleeding Dodgers blue on her blog.  What a baseball nut.  I saw a clip of her on The Best "Darn" Sports show recently, and the girl loves the game.  She says she has season tickets and goes to every other Dodgers game.  Wonder who she splits the tickets with?  And how did that come to be?
• One-third of Americans abuse alcohol.  I don't know if that's startling or not.
• You know Melissa Lee has a blog, right?  In today's entry, she blogs about Blackstone and LBO Boom:  Watch the Credit Market.  Excerpt:  As I write this, Blackstone  (BX) shares are up more than 1%, but still below $30 a share and below the offering price. And the grave dancers who have been predicting the LBO boom say: See? We're right! Investors don't want to bet on Steve Schwarzman anymore.
• Got home late from Reno last night.  Yeesh.  One of these days I'm really going to have to think about getting some serious sleep.
• Tax-managed funds outperform non-deductable IRAs.  Interesting.  Careful use of tax-managed funds can produce up to 9% better long-term returns for retirement than tradition tax-deferred investing, a new study shows.
• 4th of July already.  Holy smokes.  It always seems like the summer flies by from this point.  The next thing on the agenda is the Fantasy Football drafts, right?
• Melissa Lee naked, nude, topless, smoking, CNBC, headlights on....