Look Out, Cramer's Steamin' Mad
By James J. Cramer
1/11/01 9:33 AM ET
In my old job, I saw conflicts everywhere and kept my mouth shut. In my new job, I see conflicts everywhere, and I want to shout it from the rooftops, because I am mad as hell and I don't have to take it any more.
Put simply, the media have to get smarter about talking to analysts and fund managers. They have to get smarter fast because, if they don't, they are going to be doing every investor a disservice. I see it constantly, and I see it everywhere. Take this morning's Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - news - boards) coverage. This company's projections were a disaster. But the only analyst I saw quoted in the papers today who had anything bad to say was Fred Moran from Jefferies & Co. Why did Moran feel compelled to tell the truth and the others try to put a good face on a terrible outlook? Maybe because Jefferies has no hope of ever getting Yahoo!'s investment banking. The other analysts can't risk being as objective. (By the way, that is why Holly Becker at Lehman is such a breath of fresh air. Lehman is a major player and could get investment banking business, but she wants to make clients money.)
Or yesterday, we get a little run in the Nazzdaq, and boom, I see Alberto Vilar from Amerindo Funds and Kevin Landis for FirstHand Funds on the tube shilling their funds. No one asks how they did last year: terribly. No one asks how this year has been: terrible. No one asks whether they are seeing redemptions. Instead they are there to play objective tech analysts on television.
Just drives me crazy.
What should be done? You can be tough on these people. We are tough as nails on CNBC's "Squawk Box." These people have to come on TV as part of their marketing efforts. We can afford to ask tough questions. We can ask whether they are in the hunt for investment banking business. We can ask them why they were so wrong last year about tech and why they would be right now. There is no covenant against the truth.
thestreet.com
It is a shark's den on Squawk since Cramer joined it. They have pounded Noto who was a tout for GS and hyping PLCM at $40 in the summer. Now I see them continuely asking the analysts if they do business with the firm they recommend.
Fund managers that had a horrible year might be avoiding Squawk.
Jack |
