Cramer: It's a Worldwide Crash

And I thought the guy had a handle on it. I was fooled, but unlike Geithner, I would have had to call Fuld a liar, and you can't do that without subpoena power and a bunch of sources who would betray him. I knew only the people who surrounded him, and they told me everything was fantastic, just a little slow.

Of course, we know the truth now. The Fed has been put out to pasture, a victim of being theoretical, not practical, an organization that simply didn't take seriously those of us who warned them in person and on TV. What did they think, we made it up for ratings? Is that what they thought? You think I, a reputed bull, want to go on TV and scream that they knew nothing? I would rather recommend Colgate(CL Quote), but given the crisis it sure seemed worth waking them up.

Even as late as the summer, the Fed thought for sure the price of iron and copper meant more than the implosion of housing-based finance.

Now along comes Sheila Bair and Hank Paulson, who alternately want us to believe that everything is sound (with public pronouncements that the worry is misplaced) and that there is a list of obscure banks that might have to be taken over.

Then Paulson comes to the Capitol and says the truth, that the Western world of finance is going to break, and Bair seizes Washington Mutual and tries to seize Wachovia(WB Quote), no doubt to save Citigroup(C Quote), which could have risen, done an equity offering and joined Bank of America(BAC Quote), JPMorgan(JPM Quote) and Wells Fargo(WFC Quote) as the new titans of finance.

Of course, either the FDIC doesn't know the tax law changed to make it so if Wells bought WB it wouldn't have to pay taxes on ordinary income for years, or was oblivious to the imminent passage of TARP.