TheStreet.com TV Recap: Blood Boiling on Wall Street
TheStreet.com Staff
12/20/07 - 02:54 PM EST
The anger on Wall Street is palpable, with major executives at
Bear Stearns (BSC),
Merrill Lynch (MER) and
Morgan Stanley (MS) telling Jim Cramer their CEOs need to be fired.
"I've never seen this before," Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV's Wall St. Confidential Web video Thursday. "First of all, remember who I am -- I'm an outsider with a TV show. I'm kind of a dangerous guy to tell this to because I might just go out and do it, but people don't care. It's not being reckless; they are so upset.
Cramer: Lousy CEOs Should Be Canned |
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"John Mack, the CEO of Morgan Stanley, is presiding over what is the great implosion of that firm," he said. We know he came in after [Philip] Purcell and he was a much revered guy. Well it turns out his reverence was misplaced. He fired Zoe Cruz, who had been there for a long time."
While some people dislike Cruz and other people love her, the bottom line is she was doing a respectable job, Cramer said.
"Everybody on Wall Street knows the deal -- the boss goes," he said. This is not like the NFL, where if the linebackers don't do well, the linebacker coach goes. On the Street, if the linebackers do badly, the head coach goes because the head coach is in charge of everything.
"Mack must go," Cramer stressed.
As for Jimmy Cayne, Cramer said he's known him for years and thinks of him as a friend. However, Cramer questions why he's still running Bear Stearns.
"These are rough times," he said. Meanwhile, although
Lehman Brothers (LEH) didn't do as badly as people thought it would, the firm's chief Dick Fuld is paid as if they did fabulously.
"All I'm saying is I've never seen this before, and I have a feeling that we're going to see some changes at these firms that Mack and Cayne don't see coming," Cramer said
