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Jim Cramer's 'Stop Trading!': Give Geithner Some Credit
TheStreet.com Staff
01/13/09 - 03:15 PM EST
"Never embarrass a president by putting yourself in the ring like this," said Jim Cramer on CNBC's "Stop Trading!" segment on Tuesday. "It's embarrassing to Obama."
Just before the segment, news broke that President-elect Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, might have at some point employed a housekeeper who didn't have proper immigration and might have avoided paying Social Security and Medicare taxes.
"Frankly, I don't believe it," Cramer said. "I'm going to give this guy enough credit and say he didn't do it."
But Cramer went ahead and suggested FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair as a replacement for Geithner should it become necessary. "Unlike 310 million other people in this country, I am not a Geithner fan," he said. He said that together with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Geithner "sentenced Lehman to death."
"That's why he shouldn't get confirmed," Cramer said.