Refco Shows Stooge Factor Still Counts

Stooge factor's back! I'm talking about this ridiculous Refco (RFX - commentary - Cramer's Take) scandal, ridiculous because of all of the "going through the motions" stuff that must have occurred before this company came public in August, back when the whole thing was clearly a sham.

That's right, a sham. Such a sham, in fact, that the company has had to trash its financial statements for the last four years.

What the Refcos do to us, to those of us who are actually working hard on Wall Street to try to find value, is reveal us as "clay feeters" who really have nothing but occasionally bogus financials to stand on.

Refco also is this chapter's now-constant reminder of the kinds of miscreants this big-money casino attracts. I can't believe that anyone thought this kind of multi-million dollar alleged fraud -- horrible that you have to say alleged until someone goes behind bars -- would not come out. But then again, it took people a half-dozen years to figure out what was going on at Bayou Management.

I keep hoping that after a certain point -- long jail terms, Sarbanes-Oxley, smarter press, wiser public -- we would put an end to the kind of gigantic schemes that Refco clearly deserves to be counted among. But that's human nature. Suffice it to say that because of the stooge factor, we once again will lose some of the credibility that some of us were trying to infuse into the system after WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, etc.

Another downer.

Random musings: People keep emailing me and asking me, "What did you say last night on 'Mad Money' about so and so?" People, you can read a big recap every single night on TheStreet.com for free! It's all there! Or look for the "Jim Cramer's Wrap-up" box on the RealMoney home page.

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