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RealMoney.com: Jim Cramer Blog
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The Facts Don't Support Whitney's Claims

By Jim Cramer
RealMoney Columnist

11/16/2009 6:21 PM EST
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We were on the cusp of a 200-point day before Meredith Whitney started blabbing her darned fool head off about double-dips and retail sales and a lack of capital for an industry that she's very worried about. No sooner did I see her talk than I saw headlines all over the place about how she had "turned negative," and I had to laugh. Turned negative? She fought these moves tooth and nail and has never been positive except one moment when she said they could run without her.

 
I find the lack of accountability here mind-boggling. For example she says that banks should trade at tangible book value. OK, let's take her at her word. We would be looking for about a 20% move up in Citigroup (C - commentary - Trade Now) if that is the case.

She says that housing is not improving. I don't know what to do with people who do not see the improvement. I can't throttle them, and I can't send them nasty emails. She talks about all regionals as being bad and now all nationals joining them. Does she really think that JPMorgan's (JPM - commentary - Trade Now) situation has gotten more precarious? Can she not acknowledge that PNC (PNC - commentary - Trade Now) has vastly improved? Could she do some work on the regionals I talk about in Getting Back to Even (I will be autographing books tomorrow night at Barnes & Noble at Union Square in Manhattan) that stand to benefit if she is as right as she claims to be? She talks about how the stocks have gotten divorced from the fundamentals and says that's why there is a big increase in price. Maybe the fundamentals, though, just maybe, are improving.

As an aside, I think Whitney had many clients who were short going into this interview. The inability to take down the stocks, as hard as she tried, I believe backfired. Was she irresponsible? She runs a short-selling oriented advisory firm. She did what she had to do. But it was close to a rant where she was simply angry at the market for going higher. She has many adherents here. I can't change that. As I pull a few more of today's arrow's out of my back, I say, once again, that it was shameless.

As always, she will not appear where she can be called out on this. What a delight that must be, to have that luxury. She also can say, "Look, in the future, unemployment is going to be very high, so things will go bad," knowing that no one will ever question her about what happens if unemployment has peaked.

Put simply, Whitney is bulletproof, and for that she should be internally grateful to the news media.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPM.


Special note from Jim: You can learn my time-tested ways to trade smart, even in this market. All my latest thinking is in my brand new book, Getting Back to Even, which I'll send to you as part of a special promotion when you sign up for my ActionAlertsPlus.com service for a limited time. So if you sign up now, you'll get to see how I'm playing these stocks in my portfolio today, plus, I'll teach you how you can play these stocks to help your portfolio get back to even.

Cramer's Upcoming Book Signings

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble, Manhattan (33 East 17th St.)





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Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

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