CNBC Mad Money’s Jim Cramer Speaks Out Again On Banking Fiasco

CNBC Mad Money

Washington still can’t seem to get this banking thing right. That was the focus on Cramer’s Outrage Monday.

Treasury Secretary Geithner’s decision to forsake Citigroup’s preferred shareholders could have disastrous consequences for Bank of America, the Mad Money host said, and maybe even US Bancorp and Wells Fargo, too.

Cramer reiterated his forbearance plan to save the banks, in which the government would give money to ailing financial institutions in exchange for a promissory note of sorts to pay that money back. Instead of Washington trying to run a company like Citi, which Cramer said Geithner and friends just couldn’t, this plan allows banks to solve their own problems in the private sector. It got us out of the savings-and-loan crisis, and Cramer thinks it could work again.

Hey, we could instead go the Bolshevik route, fully confiscating banks. That seemed to work out well, right? Watch the video for Cramer’s explanation of that revolutionary move.

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Related News: CNBC’s Rick Santelli Gives the “Rant of the Year”

59% Still Believe Government Is the Problem

Rasmussen Reports

In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Since then, the stock market has fallen roughly 3,000 points, millions of jobs have been lost, nearly a trillion dollars has been spent so far to bail out the financial industry, an additional $787-billion government stimulus package has been approved, and a new president has taken office who has proposed spending billions and billions more.

Despite all that, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that the basic views of the American people have not change: 59% of voters still agree with Reagan’s inaugural address statement. Only 28% disagree, and 14% are not sure.

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Wall Street Offers Mea Culpa for Meltdown

By LAURIE KELLMAN | Associated Press

WASHINGTON – How’s this for an image makeover? Someone on Wall Street is actually apologizing for any role he or his bank may have played in underwriting a housing bubble that burst and plunged the nation into a recession.

“We are sorry for it. I am especially sorry for what’s happened to shareholders” and to all Americans, Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack told a House panel Wednesday. “Clearly, as an industry, we have accountability and we’re taking responsibility. I’ll take responsibility for my firm.”

The seven CEOs assembled with him remained silent.

Rep. Michael Capuano didn’t, rejecting the apology outright and stopping just short of calling the banking chiefs criminals.

“You come here today on your bicycles after buying Girl Scout cookies and helping out Mother Teresa,” railed the Boston-area Democrat. “You’re saying, ‘We’re sorry. We didn’t mean it. We won’t do it again. Trust us.’ I have some people in my (district) who have robbed some of your banks and they say the same thing.” …

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