Cramer shows what a pig he is.
Banks Take a Beating
By Jim Cramer
RealMoney Columnist
3/21/2011 11:57 AM EDT
The press's non-stop deification of Elizabeth Warren is nothing but trouble for the banks. When you get off the desk with bankers, believe me, one of the major topics of conversation is the desire for Warren, who is getting the Consumer Protection Agency up and running, to take away key profit lines from the banks and make them common carriers of finance.
There isn't a reporter that I know of in the conventional off-line press that doesn't worship this Harvard professor as a lone truth-teller of how horrible the banks are.
What is her rap? That the banks overcharge and under-disclose for everything. Though she can't get the Congress to eliminate the foreclosure process altogether, she has been incredible at rounding up the states' attorneys general and pushing them to stop foreclosures and force banks to give up on principal recovery.
Now, let's understand each other. She is the defaulter's best friend, whether on credit cards or mortgages. She is -- what I used to call when I was a hardcore leftist -- a redistributionist. She is ideological and, again, if you are poor and indebted, you have to think she is the greatest.
If you think the banks are evildoers, she is the greatest.
But if you think that banks should be able to earn a good return, she is a nightmare. And if you own stocks in the banks, she is a one-woman short machine.
As I look at these bank stocks today, I believe she had a real hand in the downturn. As long as she is involved and is powerful in her ex-officio way, it is very hard to own the banks. There is no reason for her to retreat. She is an academic and is beholden to no one. Plus, the media loves her so much that it is a total power trip turn-on to be her right now.
My advice is a constant: until she goes back to academe, any rally in the banks has to be short-lived. She is tireless and she is dedicated. And, worst of all, she does not play for money.
That means she can't be bought.
Be careful. In Warren v. American Banks, she's the winner. |
