Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: August 1

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"The time to worry about the economy was a year ago," Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Friday.

On the one-year anniversary of his now infamous "they know nothing" rant about the Federal Reserve and its chairman Ben Bernanke, Cramer reflected on his much publicized plea for help.

Cramer said his "rant heard around the world" was meant to avoid exactly what's happened over the past 12 months. He said the staggering losses in the financial sector could have all been avoided had the Fed only listened and cut rates aggressively.

The stock of the now defunct Bear Stearns fell 91.5% from a high of $118 a share before being salvaged by JP Morgan Chase (JPM Quote), said Cramer.

Other financial stocks have faired only slightly better over the past year, he noted, including Freddie Mac (FRE Quote) down 86%, Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) down 63%, Washington Mutual (WM Quote) down 85%, Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote)down 69%, and Citigroup (C Quote) and Wachovia (WB Quote) both down 59%.

"I saw it coming a year ago when I begged the Fed to listen," he said. Cramer said the Fed was simply offering too little too late, adding short-term interest rates needed to be cut aggressively and quickly to allow homeowners to refinance their bad loans.

He said those fears were all realized, with a tide of home foreclosures, job losses mounting for the last seven months in a row and unimaginable losses in the financial sector. He asked why Congress isn't investigating the poor actions of the Fed.

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