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To: Bid Buster who wrote (204994)	11/15/2002 10:22:25 AM
From: orkrious	Respond to of 436258

You Can't Game Research in New World Order By James J. Cramer 11/15/2002 10:16 AM EST Click here for more stories by James J. Cramer Read More Click here for the latest from James J. Cramer The old days were so much easier to game, the days before New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched his investigations into brokerage research. I can't imagine that in that period you ever would have seen a downgrade of General Electric (GE:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) just coming out of nowhere, and by a firm like J.P. Morgan Chase, which probably wanted good relations with GE at all costs. I also can't believe it would have been possible in the pre-Spitzer world to see Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news - commentary - research - analysis) cut to a sell at Merrill Lynch. (I intend to find out whether the world indeed has changed, because I have Tom Kurlak on "Kudlow & Cramer" tonight. He used to follow Intel with gusto at Merrill Lynch.) And, pre-Spitzer, I think we would have seen price targets raised on Dell (DELL:Nasdaq - news - commentary - research - analysis) because, well, it would have been the right thing to do back then in light of the need for tech to go higher so more underwritings could occur. Yes, that was the world pre-Spitzer, where you could game the research of Wall Street pretty easily because you knew it was slanted in favor of higher stock prices and more deals. That's the way it worked. Back then, a downgrade of the semis like what Merrill Lynch issued this morning would have killed any chance for underwritings for the Merrill high-tech corporate finance group. And a downgrade of General Electric at J.P. Morgan? Holy cow -- can you imagine what the repercussions would have been, pre-Spitzer? The analyst responsible for that promptly would have been sent to manage a power plant in Vladivostock But the world has changed, for the better. Because Spitzer has revealed that business as usual was, alas, corruption as usual. (In the interest of full disclosure, Spitzer was an investor at Cramer Berkowitz, the hedge fund I founded.) I don't know what will finally become of the global settlement and the investigations of Wall Street, but one thing is for certain: You can't game Wall Street research anymore. Mornings like this one show it has become too darned unpredictable. And maybe, too darned honest. Now, one has to ask, could it also be right?