Supposed Cramer Scandal - Don't Shoot the Messenger

I have to addess this, since it has blown up in the blogs yesterday. It's regarding this video interview with Jim Cramer which was posted on thestreet.com late last year as part of a section called "Wall St. Confidential".

Last December I recall watching (and re-watching) it several times to understand exactly what he was talking about.

In it Cramer describes how hedge fund managers can manipulate stock prices. For whatever reason this got "scooped" in that infamous rag the New York Post (4 months after it appeared).

Of the two methods that Cramer describes that funds use to manipulate stocks to increase their value and increase their fees, the first (which he admits to doing in his manager days) is legal; the second which he doesn't admit to, is illegal.

Some people in the public are enraged by JC's revealation. Maybe I'm too much of a JC disciple to be unbiased but I fail to see what he says here anything less than a public service.

Cramer cannot own stocks himself anymore because of his occupation as a journalist who rates stocks and the SEC surely tracks the activities of his charitable trust, so it's not like he's using these tactics and his voice in the media to get rich from the markets (obviously he makes money as an author, TV personality and speaker).

This is like a high school teacher saying they inflate grades. Everyone knows it happens, universities know. But if anyone admits they did it, they would be shot as the messenger.