Cramer: Four Reasons to Be Skittish

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People ask me why I am so often freaked out about what is happening daily in this market. Let me give you four reasons: Sheldon Adelson, Sumner Redstone, Howard Lester and Aubrey McClendon.

All four of these gentlemen got overextended and bought too much of their own stock or the stock of another company and got margined out.

These are great American businessmen. They are much smarter than I am -- much smarter than almost any people in business -- and they completely and utterly screwed up. You cannot possibly say that they did anything else.

Howard Lester created Williams-Sonoma (WSM Quote). He built that company into the best housewares company in the world with a name synonymous with quality. He is a titan. Lester sold 1,150,000 Williams-Sonoma shares to meet margin calls at prices that are down so huge from the highs as to make me think that if he doesn't know what to do -- and he clearly doesn't -- with his company or his stock, how the heck am I to know?

I owned Viacom (VIA.B Quote) the first time Sumner Redstone took it private in the early 1980s. It was one of my first hits. The man was legendary back then as a shrewd wheeler-dealer who understood both the stock market and the entertainment industry better than anyone I have ever seen. What's he done? He's gone and blown himself up, having to sell CBS (CBS Quote) stock at levels that are not to be believed. To think he had to come on the conference call and talk about his own financial problems and how they won't force him to sell any more CBS even though the situation hasn't been resolved is just preposterous. How can I understand CBS and Viacom and recognize their pitfalls if the creator of Viacom and the master of CBS doesn't know?