Mad Mail: Why Not Shut the Market Down?

Jim: This is probably a very stupid question, but why don't they just shut the market down for a few days? Let everybody just stop, breathe and calm down. --Karen

Cramer says: “Believe it or not, I thought about this occasion myself…but, of course, what would happen is then the shorts would come out en masse and do what they did to Morgan Stanley to the whole market. You cannot contain the shorts here. [SEC Chairman] Christopher Cox is their best friend. Cox is really going to go down as the worst SEC chairman in history.”

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Jim: The other day, you showed us how most of the tech stocks that collapsed lost huge percentages and still haven't recovered. Do you think the housing bubble bust will have the same outcome? If so, does that mean that the bailout will never regain the government's money just like the people who invested in those tech stocks? --Daniel

Cramer says: “No, Daniel. The government’s going to sit on those mortgages for several years until they come back. So you don’t have to worry about that. What you have to worry about is the wholesale destruction of our financials by short sellers who are buying credit-default swaps, then telling the media that things are collapsing after they got their shorts on. They are causing the problems at this level. And the insurance companies who promised S&P returns they can’t deliver.”

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