Financial Wrongdoers Can't Confuse the Media

Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes about this.

Some of you think I am a big defender of the status quo. Nothing could be further from the truth. As long as
I thought that this Floor investigation was limited to the idea that the floor guys had been negligent, I pointed that out. When the feds acknowledge that it isn't just negligence that is being investigated, those who are the subject of the inquiry should shut up and hope for the best. They should not reach out to those who were somewhat sympathetic and tell them that they don't have their facts straight.

I will leave you with one last thought. Recently, having read the Batson report, the bankruptcy examiner's report about the banks that aided and a betted Enron, I asked one of the banks why it hadn't fired the aider and abettor that had been described in the report. Sure enough, the bank's lawyer tried to explain to me that I didn't understand the transaction that was involved, saying it was more complicated and sophisticated than I thought. I absolutely hit the roof. I was a top-five derivative trader, in terms of commissions, at Morgan Stanley for more than a decade. I crafted some of the transactions that these guys crafted, although at least I did them honestly. The guy I was speaking to was a lifetime lawyer, who I bet didn't know the difference between selling to close and selling to open. But I believe he had his orders: Confuse the media and make the media feel as if it doesn't know what is going on because it isn't sophisticated enough.

One of the reasons I committed to financial media was to stop these sorts of shenanigans; officials at these companies who think they can slide by when journalists ask tough questions by saying the issue is too difficult for the journalist to understand.

Who are these losers kidding? Not me, not you, and certainly not any other readers of this site.

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James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder 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 by clicking here. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Click here to buy Cramer's latest book, "You Got Screwed!" Click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict."