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- Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to my world. - Jim Kramer burst onto the scene because of "Mad Money." - It is a lightning round on "Mad Money." - Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy
incredible content that was easy to understand and I give him and his producers great credit for literally cracking the code. FIRED! FIRED!
Somebody has to stand up for the shareholders who actually pay the price for lousy management. Two million customers are known to be explicitly defrauded. True or false? All the questions he's asking, he's trying to help everyone make more money. Other people all about the friendship game. Me, my goal is to make you rich.
The beauty of Jim Cramer is that he's authentic. So when the times get tough, he's not going to run away from it. He knows who he is, and he stays true to that. They're nuts! They know nothing! Jim saw something, he said something, and there was incredible backlash. When you have strong opinions, you are going to be attacked. We're going to fire up Cramer in your hands. Are you ready, Skidami? Yes!
Tonight, we celebrate 20 years of mad money, 20 years of giving support and educating free Americans. I believe we can overcome anything to save and grow secure with our money. I know it. I lived it. Back in 1978, I was a down-and-out homicide reporter in L.A., homeless, living in my Ford Fairmont, sleeping on the back seat, underwear as my pillow, armed with a pistol, some J&J baby powder, because there's no shower in a car. Oh, and let's not forget the requisite bottle of Jack Daniels just to stay warm.
Right then and there, as impossible as it seems, I decided I just had to make something of myself. I only knew of one way to do it. Saving. I took whatever spare cash I had, $8 here, $12 there, and sent it to Fidelity with an IRA I set up because I was just sick and tired of being poor.
And I pulled myself out of it. 25 years later, and that IRA hit $2 million. And I never forgot what my father always said. You got to save, Jimmy. So if I can put away money while living out of a nasty Fort Fairmont, anybody can. That's the point of this show. So tonight we're reflecting on the unbelievable journey of the last 20 years and what this show has meant to me. And more importantly, what I hope it's meant to all of you.
- I love you! - He just draws you in to pay attention, but he keeps you entertained. And him having the cojones to take that step, that was such an aberration to anything anybody had ever seen when it came to serious stock analysis. - We want to look for stocks.
with very low multiples. I was running NBC Entertainment at the time and I had oversight of the cable networks and Jim came to me and put himself on the line and said he wanted a shot. He just believed in me because it's nuts. Who doesn't show a one-man show about business? It's insane.
And it's in many ways too difficult to even believe that anyone would ever do it. But Jeff backed it, so we did it. This guy has managed to take his stock down 35%. Mad money was controversial for one specific reason. He was going to pick stocks. What to buy, what to hold, what to sell.
And that had never been done before on CNBC. We managed to petrify the entire legal department. We also had not one, but two lawyers stationed in the control room at all times, pouring over every single solitary word that Jim said. They were always afraid that if you, like, recommended a stock, that it somehow would lose money and then people would sue you. Call me at 1-800-743-CNBC!
It's hard to imagine now, 20 years later, that this was a really provocative idea, a little out there with a crazy host. And it was a pretty big hit right out of the box. It should have felt spectacularly. It was so crazy. Did this get your attention? Mad Money was its own thing from the very beginning. And more than any show that we've ever had, it was specific to one person.
We did everything we could to stand out. We felt that it was a dead hour, 6 p.m. Business news, what are you going to do? So we had to do a lot of razzle-dazzle, a lot of buttons, a lot of noise with the idea that we could push through.
He got noticed, and he got noticed quickly. Months after the program launched, Dan Rather was walking around CNBC doing a piece for 60 Minutes. Kramer's been a major player on Wall Street for decades, and now he's got a new and very different television show. If you're going to scale yourself, be part of the firm, and Dan Rather matters as part of the firm. And that's the goal when you're starting. ♪
You, me, let's try to make some money, man. The company has had a history of being able to pull rabbits out of the hat when he ran out of money. Are you guys okay? I think we're fine. In retrospect, everybody wants to figure out, was it timing? Was it good luck? What was it? This one went right at Main Street. He spoke in a language that was more accessible to more people. And that was a breakthrough and a great one. He knows so much about the companies and the topic, but he explains it in a way
that anyone can understand. And he does it with the energy and passion that he brings to everything he does. The chaos ensuing created a much broader audience. But importantly, his message, though, if you got around the theatrics, the message has been consistent now for the entire 20 years. I make it so that it's digestible.
and even fun. And because of that, they'll open an account, they'll watch a CEO, they'll listen to me, hopefully they'll make a little money. So the longevity comes from teaching. - I think we got lucky with the timing of when the show came on the air. There was this explosion of retail investing and that coincided with people who were looking for some direction on where they should invest. And here was this guy who came along who was a little crazy and all over the place, giving them advice and it just worked.
My job is not just to entertain you, although I do a lot of that in the show, but to educate you. It's hard to separate whether Jim brought the retail investor to the markets or the retail investor brought Jim to the TV screen. But clearly they had a close relationship. One of the biggest drivers of the retail investor participation boom has been the introduction of zero cost trading. Commissions collapse.
from $50 a trade to $10 a trade to $0 a trade. You did have these confluence of events and whether he knew it or not, Jim took total advantage of that moment. To give you some more context over just how much retail traders matter more today, Charles Schwab, one of the biggest retail brokerages in America, had about 7 million brokerage accounts back in 2005.
Now that number is over 36 and a half million accounts. Another thing that's also happening during this period, more and more people are starting to invest in 401ks. So a greater number of Americans are becoming interested in the stock market. This is why bad money has become so important talking about these things. And Jim, he's one of the few individuals who's focusing on retirement. And I applaud him for that. Jim Cramer
has democratized the way Wall Street works in terms of how the retail investor can understand the street stocks in a much better way. More people care about their money in 2025 than did in 2005.
The markets are bigger. The number of retail investors is much larger, and the program resonates as strongly as it ever has. Being an investor means knowing when to get out. He has thrived and he has flourished, even as the conventional wisdom has been like, oh, don't even try. Don't even try to beat the market. You know, even the experts can't do it.
Jim believes that you can. There's no single person I believe in the history of investing who has done so much to make investing accessible to so many.
What I respect most about Jim Cramer is that he's there every day because he knows people's financial lives are depending on him. And he doesn't ever want to violate that trust. Thanks to you for all you've done for my wife and I. You made a major difference in our life. I think one of the keys to the success of the show was that real people were involved. And he was talking to them on the line every day. Everything seems, you know, easy now in hindsight, but in 2005,
Nobody had done this. And I've got my daughter and my grandson in the stocks. Thank you very much. Yes, that's what I want. I always loved hearing the phone calls because that was a real mirror of what was actually on people's minds. I love the callers. Dave from Illinois. I know Dave in a nanosecond. I got some British guy from California who always calls. So many great callers. That fuels the show.
Robert in New York, Robert! I call in constantly because I make investments in the stock market and I won't make a move without Jim's advice. Jim, do you agree I should buy more and sell much later? The reason why people like Jim Cramer is because he is one of us. He's one of the regular people out there. There's nothing phony about him. Trying to help people make money. I'm trying to teach.
Trey in Texas, Trey. So at this point, I've called into the show over 50 times. I actually work in real estate, but trading is certainly the thing that I would prefer to be doing full time. It's definitely my number one passion. Second being my marriage. Why, Trey? You and I both know. We talk to each other more than I talk to my wife. One of the really interesting things about the show is he has a CEO on the show just about every day. CEOs flock to
Jim has created a currency of trust
trust with the CEO, trust with the retail investor, and trust with the street. The equity of the brand has never been stronger at Starbucks. We are trying to accelerate our initiatives to better serve you. He's in our stores.
He's trying our products and he's going to make it real. And so he's very relevant and he can bring out nuances and stories that other people won't. We fused it with artificial intelligence. This brain is going a thousand miles an hour right there in front of you. It's incredibly fun, but it's also incredibly challenging, frankly. It's sort of a rite of passage and a badge of courage. And I think it became for a CEO to say, I've been on Mad Money. That really is an I've arrived moment.
I think a lot of people go on the show for the challenge. This is the question people wanted me to ask you over and over again. So I'm going to ask it because this is what people who watch the show want. Was it ignorance of the practice that was happening or was it your culture? If they screw up, I got to be tough on them because it's not about friends. It's about money. What do you say to an analyst who says the cash situation could become serious? Is that an analyst wrong? I do find that the CEOs think it's a very conducive atmosphere to tell their story.
Jim's goal has always been to make us money and I would say after 20 years he's been very successful. Booyah! My dad taught me how to save money. Jim Cramer showed me how to invest money. He has made nothing short of just a massive impact on our lives. The thing that you need to hear is that you helped.
And if you helped, you keep doing it. I've always liked Nvidia. NVDA is one of the few winners in the PC supply chain. Nvidia. Nvidia. Nvidia, darn it, deserves the accolades. Nvidia is the one that I've made the most money on. He was early in learning about AI and he was early in recognizing its potential. And then he went and told everybody the story of Nvidia. It's probably 30% of my portfolio and it's worth over a million dollars.
♪
Jim always saw his mission as trying to help people, and he never pretended for a second that he was going to get everything right. I mean, nobody likes to make mistakes, and invariably you're going to when you're recommending I don't know how many different stocks during the course of a day, a week, a year. Jim has made some bad calls, and it's cost me some money. I can't hide my disappointment here about what I thought was a cheap stock, but obviously I was wrong. The thing that defines him the most is his constant willingness to reassess himself and
question his self-limiting beliefs and change accordingly. I try so hard to explain why I made the mistakes so that you don't make mistakes. I try to show you how to do the homework. We have made an astronomical amount of money. Losing
Some money is just part of the process. I did not get that right. I apologize. I was not clear in my thinking. I think Jim acknowledging that he's not always right actually sets him apart from most people on television who are not usually willing to say they got something wrong. He could be wrong, but he does it because he wants to help people make money. Getting them off the couch and doing something about investing, he's done something extraordinary.
Mark dropped 1,000 points that day. If you listen to me, you got a 40% avoidance. You dodge a 40% decline. He stuck his neck out in a way that was so potentially damaging. And the firestorm that that set off is something I will never forget. We were turned down, turned down, turned down. And I asked Harvard.
And they were lukewarm. And I said, look, I'd like to make a donation. I really want to get this done. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. Jim goes to Indiana University where I went to school. And he's like, I'm going to throw you a basketball. And I'm like, well, what if I miss? Ha ha.
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This is the sign of money being made when you hear that noise. I want to talk to everybody. I know I'm supposed to talk to this guy and this CEO, but you want to ask everybody what they're up to. How are you? Kramer. I see investment ideas everywhere. You want real technology, you come on this floating platform. Welcome to the United States Air Force Academy.
I like to talk with real people. I particularly like to talk with veterans. We salute the brave men and women in the armed forces. And I'm particularly proud to have my dad, Ken Kramer here, who volunteered to fight right after Pearl Harbor. It was my father's inspiration and my executive producer that we spent a lot of time with veterans. And I feel really great about that. Booyah!
It was like Saturday game day college football action. You couldn't hear. I don't know, sometimes I wonder how he could hear. Welcome to People's Republic of America! We start to hear these University of wherever booyahs and hey Jim I'm watching my economics class and people watching their fraternity houses and so we thought maybe we should do the show on a college campus. Today I'm Professor Kramer!
I felt that I could have been a great professor. That's what I kind of wanted to do for business. This is a much better pulpit. Jim's focus on college campuses really starts from the fact that he began his love of stocks and the stock market when he was about that age. I want you to start thinking about trying to get rich early. And that means you need to start investing early. Once we had the idea for the college tour, I was calling around people.
to a bunch of different universities. And they really simply said, we don't believe there's any chance that your show will have appeal to our students. We were turned down, turned down, turned down. And I asked Harvard and they were lukewarm. And I said, look, I'd like to make a donation. I really want to get this done. And it was, in fact, Harvard Law School, not even Harvard Business School. It was Harvard Law where Jim had gone. This is the that could make it so you never.
to class again! College campuses were afraid that we were giving out advice to college students and they made a mistake. They could get held responsible. It was the same fear that people at CNBC had. I knew if I could get one school, I knew it could happen. Might as well be Harvard.
Are you ready, Steve Daddy? Booyah! We decided to shoot this promo to kind of set the stage of what would it be like for Jim Cramer to be on campus. And we started airing that promo and off we went. Are you paying attention? What do you want to do with your life? I want to try to make people rich, really rich. Booyah!
I was a student at Harvard Business School. I remember Jim coming to campus. The line was crazy long, and not everybody could get in. I remember afterwards, the squishies that were part of the show that he would throw, you could sell them on eBay for like hundreds of dollars, you know, because people wanted them so much. Oh, well, wait a sec. Wait a sec. I just want to tell you. I want you to take a look. Aaron, take a look at this audience. And there they are. It sounds like they're cheering on the gladiator. And for
There he is. I know I can get them excited about stocks and get them excited about investing. It's what I do. I get people involved. And if you can get them involved in college, they're going to invest their whole lives. Part of understanding business is understanding how the stock market works. And it's part of your curriculum if you're going to major in business at any college. That's what you're trying to do is figure out like, oh yeah, how do you get like the key insights in a company? And he was making that stuff really accessible. Like he was...
the living embodiment of exactly the kind of thing that we were trying to learn at Harvard Business School. If you're a college student and your buddy tells you, you've got to come check out this guy. He's hilarious. He talks all about stocks and business.
I mean, that all fed upon itself. Bill Reddy, he's the new CEO. Gentlemen, welcome to Mad Money. Jim's been a huge influence on me. I remember my very first interview with Jim as CEO of Pinterest. He spent time with me after the show when I was coming in at a moment where the company was really going through some major changes. And Jim just had such great advice and really helped give me the courage of my conviction to really look to go prove there's a real business model in positivity. When I hear that I played any role in anybody's life,
I put any bill right in anybody's life. It's just such a huge deal. This is the fuel. I need the fuel. See, without that, there's no oxygen. The thing that you need to hear is that you helped. We're trying to go do the right thing and prove it's a good business model to do the right thing for users. I want to congratulate you on five years and most importantly, congratulate you on that attitude. The best part about the back to school tour.
Why I do it is the chance to talk to the best and brightest students in the country. Younger people are the ones that are saying, I don't think I'm going to make as much money as my parents. But this guy comes along and he's talking about how if I put $10 away, $20 away in a mutual fund, in an index fund, he's telling me I can actually make money and I'm going to do it. It's up to you guys. It was standing room only. There were sadly kids who had to be turned away. Who came to play?
He's like the Pied Piper. I mean, you cannot imagine the kind of following that he has. Young people are very hungry and longing for a way in. And I think Jim Cramer has the unusual talent and characteristic to almost be a chameleon and relate to so many different people. It's a real gift.
Get on your feet, Hoosiers! Jim goes to Indiana University where I went to school and I'm like, I'm there. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban! And he was like, Mark, when you come on, I'm going to throw you a basketball because they were right on the basketball court at Assembly Hall. And I'm like, okay. He goes, you're going to shoot it, right? And I'm like, well, what if I miss?
But I walked in, he hit me with a perfect pass, you know, made about a 15-footer, and the crowd went wild, Jim went wild. If I had made that shot, I might not have ever lived it down. Give him credit! Give him credit! Cuban lit up the room, and he also legitimized the tour. Because if Cuban liked the tour, maybe the tour's great. Yeah!
Jim Cramer is definitely the Drake of the business school. He is insanely popular and everyone knows who he is. Tonight, he from the gorgeous campus of the University of Miami. One of our more recent college tours was at the University of Miami, where one of the young women who wanted to ask him a question said, listen, I really would like to ask a question, but I'm nervous. I have a very personal connection to the show.
When I was like one or two years old, my dad would be watching the show and Jim Cramer would say, "Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye." And I would repeat it back to the TV. Hi, Jim. My name is Francesca Demisa and I'm from Boca Raton, Florida. I remember my stomach started like turning and hurting and I was like,
very scared, especially because I was sharing such a vulnerable story. Before I ask my question, I wanted to tell you how much this show means to me. My father died of pancreatic cancer when I was eight years old, and this show is like one of the few memories I have of him is watching it with him. So I'm very thankful to meet you and be here today. It was one of those things where I jumped down from the stage, and there's this student, and she's telling the truth.
about her and her dad. And I'm like, wow. Like, I did something good. A story like that of a father and daughter sharing this show together and having that be something they'd love to do together, that to me makes him being on Mad Money worth it. And I am thankful for you sharing that story of real life.
And I'm glad you got to spend the time with your dad. I had similar experience with my mom with kidney cancer. It just goes, you know? And you got that precious time and I'm glad that we could be a part of it. So thank you very much. I just, I like you. I mean, what can I say? - Thank you so much. - You know, you're why I do this show. - When I saw Jim, it was just a rush of emotion in terms of wishing my dad was there. It was just the feeling of really wishing he was there to see everything I accomplished.
Because I worked really hard. If you were making Iron Man, right? If you were Jon Favreau or Marvel or whatever, like, we need a guy who can speak to, like, the business community on TV. There is no one else you would pick. There's still a lot of people who, when they see me, say, I got Iron Man. He's an Iron Man. And it's funny because it's what crashes through. It crashes through.
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Mad Money started to become part of the American consciousness. He is the one guy that people think of when it comes to business television. This fiery money manager literally rolls up his sleeves to host CNBC's Mad Money. Who's Kramer? Jim Kramer. A real pop culture highlight for me and my sister was Arrested Development because we loved that show. Don't buy! Don't buy? Huh? Mom, did you see that? Don't buy blues! It was not scripted.
And that really worked. So then the guy who does Iron Man, he says, look, you're going to be saying that you don't want to recommend Stark anymore. I've got one recommendation. Ready? Ready? Sell, sell, sell. I had a baseball bat and I had a mug. I just slammed the mug and I hit a lot of buttons and I had no script whatsoever. Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan.
If you were making Iron Man, right, if you were Jon Favreau or Marvel or whatever, like, we need a guy who can speak to, like, the business community on TV. There is no one else you would pick. There's still a lot of people who, when they see me, say, Iron Man, it's Iron Man. And it's funny because it's what crashes through. It crashes through. My next guest is the host of his own financial program, Jim Cramer. His persona helped him cross over
but he brought his investor chops with him. So if you look at much of the pop culture work that was done, most of it was grounded in money.
and investing. We started getting phone call after phone call. Next thing you know, Jim is on The View. The only thing I have to say is that your money should not be in your mattress. So you shouldn't be laying with your money. Here was an easy person with whom to identify, right? On daytime TV, on late night talk shows. I suggest out of Krispy Kreme and into Tim Horton. Not as sexy, not as good tasting, but better run company. Is that, those are donuts? Canadian. They're Canadian donuts. Despite the fact that he's got hundreds or thousands of stocks
in his head, he is much broader than that. I mean, the guy is a true unicorn. - Hello, fellow Facebookers, I'm here to -- - You need to have a really good sense of humor if you're gonna work on Mad Money.
So when the occasional parody comes along, South Park, for example, we can appreciate the sentiment and laugh along with it and realize that it is an honor. Kyle Broflovsky's stock is plummeting. I mean, Jim's been parodied on South Park and The Simpsons, which I think highlights just how mainstream he's gone and how universal his brand is. I'm grounded and spend all day listening to my dad yell at mad money with Jim Cramer. I actually watched The Simpsons in my
nephew Cliff watches South Park and we were like, huh? You said tech stocks were bulletproof. The unexpected is to be expected. I think helps him
navigate virtually any medium and probably mediums we haven't even heard of yet. What's the best tax advice you can give? Honestly, you gotta have a house. During the reign of mad money, reality TV rose and TikTok and all these things towards the other end of it. What they all have in common to me is that people wanted to see people for who they really were. And Jim had that from the beginning. And that, I think, is why he
is so much broader than just the specifics of what to buy and sell today. Mr. Kramer, are you the TV personality who regularly shouts and badgers on Mad Money?
Well, I think Badger's debatable. But yes, I have a very, dare I say, flamboyant personality on my TV program. Once bad money had cut through and Jim had become a part of American popular culture, it enhanced his mission to try to help everyone out there on Main Street to understand what was going on on Wall Street.
Would it be stupid to take money out of my 401? Yes, absolutely. You can't do that. No, you can't. He combines the flair of an entertainer, the knowledge of a true expert, and the passion to help people and teach other people. And I think that's a very rare combination. He's a leader. I mean, he's a leader in modern thought about business. And that's going to draw audiences in all kinds of interesting and new ways. Hip, hip, hooray, Jim Cramer!
may you have continued success. He has no idea what it's like out there. None! Jim was losing his mind on air. Losing his mind. I actually walked down to see what is going on, and it was Kramer just screaming. These firms are going to go out of business, and he's nuts! They're nuts! They know nothing!
When you accomplish as much as Jim has, you're going to have detractors. Jim's a controversial figure, right? He's got people who love him, he's got people who hate him. And I think that's why you know he's cut through. With his tremendous success and visibility, he gets criticism. I mean, there have been people trying to take him down. We jarred something loose in those ivory towers and some of the coverage started to get really, really nasty.
buy, sell, or cringe. Also, Jim Cramer's big mouth. Did Cramer finally cross the line? It was just a sea of awful, awful press. They felt like they were potentially damaging, but in some cases, it brought more people to the program. Our viewership
became more emboldened and steady in the fact that they were going to stick with us because they found the information was valuable. There's no doubt in my mind that he does see sort of a mission in terms of trying to help people. I don't question at all his sincerity for one second because I see it every day. Something that people misunderstand about my dad is that
He is not in this for himself. He was not born into this. This is someone who lived out of his car. And then once he amassed all this knowledge, he chose to share it with people, hoping that they could find the success that he did. 2007 was really a line in the sand when a lot of things changed in terms of our sense of stability and confidence.
You were beginning to get anecdotal evidence of a real crack in what mortgage financing was all about. The risks people were taking in the housing market, it eventually became, quote, "the big short." Mad Money's Jim Cramer is here. Jim and I did a segment together called Stop Trading. It was part of the afternoon show that I did on CNBC, which was called Street Science. And Jim would just get to opine. One of my lasting memories of Jim Cramer
and it's got to be the lasting memory that a lot of people have was his rant about the fed bear goes down market goes down i had intended to talk about just a couple of boring stocks but i've been making so many calls and kept hearing the same thing which is that there's a major crisis and no one's talking about it and the federal reserve keeps raising interest rates they should be cutting interest rates because we're in such trouble particularly in housing jim came out and
I've really never seen him like that before. Bernanke needs to focus on this. Alan Greenspan told everyone to take a teaser rate and then raise the rate 17 times. Jim was so upset and he was so passionate and he wanted to be heard and he couldn't stop himself. And he has no idea what it's like out there. None! Jim was losing his mind on air. Losing his mind.
And I thought that it was a little out of character, even for him. She could literally hear the screaming, so much so that I actually walked down to see what is going on. And it was Kramer just screaming. You know, he was pounding his fist on the table, right? And they know nothing, they know that. And he was just screaming.
And it was just from his core. It was from the depth of his being. And these firms are going to go out of business and he's nuts. They're nuts. They know nothing. I think that Jim Cramer was literally the only member of the media, financial or otherwise, who understood the problem that was about to start unraveling. There was a real question as to whether the Fed was fully cognizant of the deterioration that was going on.
in terms of credit quality. 14 million people took a mortgage in the last three years. 7 million of them took teaser rates or took piggyback rates. They will lose their homes. This is crazy. The newsroom was basically silent. I think that there was a complete sense of shock. People were panicked that Jim had said too much or frankly that Jim was wrong and was panicking people for no reason. You know, like a lot of things with Jim, it was a little over the top.
I can't imagine myself ever, ever doing that. But that said, he was right. Knowing what was going on with the Fed and being able to call him out when nobody else would do it, that they were afraid, he deserves a lot of credit. I knew banks that were in trouble. I knew my friends were in trouble. And everyone was acting like everything was fine. And I was the only guy who was saying it wasn't fine. So then, you know, you kind of feel like the boy who cried wolf.
But I knew it was bad. The moment with Aaron Burnett and Jim Cramer was one of the most extraordinary moments of television because she just let it breathe. And Jim just let it all hang out there. I was still a trader and portfolio manager at the time. And it was crazy how many of us were talking about it. And for me, I think it was a massive, massive revelation about just how much one person could really do.
impact the narrative in financial markets. Bear Stearns, the building is right behind me. After Jim sounds off about the Fed, it's March 2008 and Bear Stearns fails. And that was really the moment where
We realized the whole system was much weaker than anyone realized. Breaking news all over Wall Street this morning. This is a special early morning edition of Squawk as Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, AIG working to raise cash. Another six months goes by and Lehman goes down. The day after, AIG goes down. Bank after bank get taken down by these toxic assets.
And then Jim Cramer goes on the Today Show. For investors, what is your advice today? Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now. Very dramatic statement for Savers. I thought about this all weekend. I do not want to say these things on TV. It was very dramatic. I mean, he was basically telling people, if you need money for the next five years, get it. We had a lot of discussions the day before he was supposed to go on the Today Show. And I said to Jim, Jim,
What are we doing? And he said, well, I'm taking the money out so that we have it. And I said, OK, that's what you got to tell people then. The market dropped a thousand points that day, but it was at 11,000. If you listen to me, you got a 40 percent avoidance. You avoided, you dodged a 40 percent decline. He stuck his neck out in a way that was so potentially damaging, not only to his career, but to our show and frankly, to the entire network.
And the firestorm that that set off is something I will never forget. Everybody got angry. The guy was right.
Look at what happened. What should make me confident that this time you're wide awake and ready to stop any crisis like the one I talked about? I want you to know that he was right at that point. We were at the beginning of this great panic. I'm not looking for the Congressional Medal of Investing, but I got some things right. I got things wrong and I got things right. And I got 2007 right. He voted with his heart and his conscience about what he believed in.
But, you know, he calls balls and strikes the way he sees it. Jim Cramer cannot be bought. He's never willing to just be bowled over simply because people don't like what he's doing. In my view, the most you can do in your life is stay true to who you are. Know what your North Star is and always make decisions you believe are right. I think Jim has always worked hard to do that.
One of the really, really darkest moments for me, for Jim, and for the entire Mad Money team was The Daily Show. You knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months and months. The entire network was.
And so now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst. I mean, like, okay, fine. When you're right, you can take a lot of pain.
When you're wrong, you're a fool. But when you're right, you can take it. And I knew I was right. Somebody who had been trying to help people became the person who became the personification of what was wrong with the entire system. I can't reconcile the brilliance and knowledge that you have of the intricacies of the market with the crazy bulls**t I see you do every night. We watched Jim somehow get personally blamed for
for not only being a part of it, but essentially for causing the crisis. And the moments and days following that were really hard. - I didn't understand the motivation 'cause I thought I'd done a lot that was good. I tried to call people's attention to it.
But, you know, to be overtly the face of it, I didn't think that I deserved it. But like in Unforgiven, deserves got nothing to do with it. Eventually, on an earnings call, I had to come out and say that it was completely unfair and inappropriate. This became a national story that Jim Cramer was being held responsible for the financial crisis. I mean, it's absurd. It was a lot to
to handle and my sister and I became maybe more shy and self-conscious because of this but at the same time you're sharing this figure with the rest of the world so we knew that as much as he wanted to sort of take some of that pressure off of us he also had a responsibility to be speaking on these matters you
You can't let anything define you. I mean, I got a fabulous wife who very quickly will kick you in the butt if you really start going, oh, I feel so bad. She won't tolerate that. She tolerates none of that. She's right. You made the statement on the air that you didn't think we were going to see a turn around on Wall Street for five years. People flipped out when you said that. He bounced back quite soon. I mean, I think it
He took the blow, it hurt, but he loves what he does and he believes in what he does and that gives him the strength to come back. He may not be right all the time, certainly he won't be, nobody is. He's always worth listening to and so
I think he's as much at the top of his game as he's ever been. What are you going to accomplish if you never stick your neck out? What are you going to accomplish? Who's going to know you? What does it mean? Who are you going to have an impact on, a positive impact, unless you stick your neck out? But you have to expect that it'll be cut off now and then. I think it's common knowledge that Jim is a wealthy guy and, in fact, does not need this job. However, he wished to...
sort of do some penance for some of that time making the very wealthiest people in the world wealthier and share some of those ideas that made those people very rich with regular people because in fact it's the same ideas. He could have sat there and done his hedge fund trading and continued to make a whole lot of money and lived in that type A frenetic world that he lived in and instead he chose to do this. You can tell that he cares and he carries his emotions on his sleeve
And I think people relate to that. I think they truly believe that he has their best interests at heart. Some of my favorite memories with him are people coming up to him and saying, you know, you helped me pay off all my student debt or my medical bills. I love hearing people from all walks of life saying he helped me. I do think of him in some ways like a Jordan or a Tiger Woods in that you had to have a
that training and that really natural expertise about a very specific topic and the willingness
to just work your ass off. - The best comp for me, for Jim Cramer, is really Taylor Swift. What she is to the music industry is what Jim Cramer is to our business. The biggest star, someone people genuinely love, someone with immense talent that inspires generations. - The degree of relevance that he's had for two plus decades is an extraordinary accomplishment. - I would like to be remembered as someone who really helped people be not part of the retirement crisis.
It's no secret that I love seeing fly eagles fly, but I've always viewed mad money as the ultimate team sport.
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It's been an incredible ride. So many unforgettable moments. We're talking 4,000 shows and still counting. But none of it would have been possible without the ridiculously talented team supporting the show.
I've had the privilege of working with the absolute best in the business, my executive producer, Regina Gilligan, my head writer and only writer, my sister's kid, Cliff Mason, and the entire Mad Money staff. And of course, nothing would be possible without the studio crew, editors, graphic artists, and everyone else behind the scenes. It's no secret that I love seeing fly eagles fly, but I've always viewed Mad Money as the ultimate team sport.
The success this show has achieved over the last 20 years could not have happened without this team. So to each and every one of you and all the Mad Money fans out there, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Booyah! All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Cramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, or their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Cramer on television, radio, internet, or another medium.
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