Cramer: The Fed 'Wants a Recession'
CNBC’s Jim Cramer continues to heap criticism upon the Federal Reserve for not cutting interest rates. Most recently on January 2, “Mad Money” Cramer suggested the Fed was trying to punish reckless borrowers.
“I have to tell you that I look at this situation and I say to myself, ‘They [the Federal Reserve] want it. They want a recession.’” Cramer said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “They’re Puritans. They want to punish the people who were reckless in their eyes and the punishment has still not finished being meted out.”
Cramer was called into a discussion about the Fed with CNBC’s David Faber and “Squawk Box” co-host Joe Kernan.
“I don’t know whether to pound the Fed some more because we’re down from 13,800 where they only went [with a cut] a quarter [point] or I don’t know whether to admit maybe they were right to worry about the dollar and inflation,” Kernan said. “I want to know and I want it to become clear in the next three months.”
Cramer told viewers the Fed needed to be criticized “more than ever” for “fiddling while
“I have to tell you, I think the incrementalism is probably the most reckless strategy I’ve come across,” Cramer said.
Kernan asked Cramer if the Fed were “consensus building gradualism between academics sipping white wine with their finger up in the air. Right?”
“It’s a Chablis thing,” Cramer said. “They probably use Robert Parker [a wine critic] as their best indicator of what to do here.”
On December 19, Cramer told viewers of NBC's “Today” Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was on his Christmas “naughty” list for not cutting interest rates. Bernanke’s punishment was ‘stinky coal.’
“He is a guy that doesn’t get regular coal – I’m giving him high-sulfur stinky coal,” Cramer said. “He is in the end an academic who is over his head frankly. I hate to say that. He’s a volunteer official who is trying to do his best. But he had his chance and he’s lost it.”
Cramer also predicted $4 a gallon gasoline in November by the end of 2007 – a prediction that still hasn’t come true.
“I still like oil,” Cramer said on the November 8 “Today.” “I think oil goes a little bit higher. It is monster. You'll be paying at the pump. You'll be paying $4 [a gallon] within the next six weeks.”
Ironically, Cramer was still high on oil and gas, picking it as the best sector for investing in 2008 on the January 2 “Squawk on the Street.”
Last month, Cramer’s book, “Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich,” was released which is currently fifth on The New York Times “Hardcover Advice” Bestsellers list.
