Another Funny AIG Commercial; Cramer Loses it On Air; Larry Summers Snoozes

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A new reality for the smart-ass AIG kids from Jimmy Kimmel Live.

See also:

Original Collection of AIG Kid Commercials

Tip to Nicholas Carlson from Clusterstock:

CNBC had Dan Solin, the author of The Smartest 401k Book You'll Ever Read on as a guest today. After the host asked him what people could do better to save for retirement, Solin answered:

"One of the things that you could do is to give us more 'In Bogle we Trust' and much less 'In Cramer we Trust'."

Moments later, Cramer barged on to the set to respond.

"The S&P is flat literally for ten years. That's John Bogle's world. If you were to sell at 11,000 like I told you in September, 10,000 like I told you in December, and then get back in at 6,500, who wins? Is that so bad? Is that worth not trusting in? I've had it with the people who tell me about the index fund. For ten years they've done nothing! For ten years! When do they get called on the carpet? When are they ever wrong? Do we have to wait another ten years? Enough of this! I've said my piece. Happy 20th!"

Lawrence Summers asleep at the wheel during a White House meeting with credit-card providers.

financial comedy, financial humor, bailout comedy, laughs

Comments

[K]

The clip with Solin and Cramer shows how promise is confused with performance. Prospectus v. result.

If an index fund tracks what it promised to track then it has been run properly. It delivered the result investors chose. So Cramer's rant about low returns misses the point. But he is right, index funds have had low returns.

Solin actually directed his advice to the show's producers and not to Cramer. And it was the producer that had Cramer cued to go on. He didn't invade the set.

The Financial Guild Theater Company comes to a screen near you.

[James H]

Looks like Another Good Day for the Good Guys.

Is Timmy toast? I don't know, but this makes him look very bad. I mean how many times is it permissable for someone in his position to have breakfast -- breakfast! -- with "Bob" Rubin of Citi? Looks like Timmy had quite the social calender when he was at FRBNY -- in fact, you can even read his calender if you like. All 600+ pages of it. And it's searchable ("Goldman" 54 times).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/27geithner.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Ain't Bullshittin']

I can't belittle Summers...that crap would put me to sleep too. It's a shame that these are the clowns put in control of our future but "it is what it is" and it IS CRAP.

[Ain't Bullshittin']

Well Cramer is right...S&P is flat because they've been cooking the books for 10 years and smart money has exited due to retirees wanting a more secure "fixed investment return" future and there has not been enough new money coming in to offset the withdrawls. It's also called demographics. It's a traders market with traders making hay off of the price swings. The poor avg Joe has no chance because he is not privy to the insider info and cannot manufacture swings like the big players can. If you watch how block traders trade....you are already too late to the party and are booking a looser. Sorry to give Cramer any street cred here but he's right. What he forgot to mention was his role in the past of "moving" the market in his favor while running a fund. Funny how these little tidbits go missing from the conversation......Anyone who believes in buy and hold....Still wants to be your stock broker. It's like a pyramid scheme....gotta' have new suckers to keep it going. Lets keep America SUCKER-FREE and invest in paying off debt and buying American made products. It ain't much but it's a start.

[Steve Phillips]

I like how Cramer cherry picks his "calls" to nail the tops and bottoms. Yes, he's a retired gazillionaire, and I'm not, but truth is he was a pump and dump hedge fundie who was lucky to have ol' Harvard roomie Elliot Spitzer as his best friend or he'd be wearing orange jumpsuits today. He made his fortune the day TSCM IPO'd. Anybody else who bought that day, bought at the top. As a tv buffoon, he's more often wrong than right and little more than a loudmouth spittle of a blind dartboard chucker of stock picks. Maybe index funds have been flat for a decade, but if you were listening to Cramer's pronouncements on how you had to buy CMGI, JDSU and ARBA 10-11 years ago, you would've completely sat out the past decade in the stock market because you were broke.