My Brush With Fame

One of the blogs I frequent is the Steven Levitt – Stephen Dubner “Freakonomics” blog, inspired by the book of the same name. A couple weeks ago they did a Q&A session with Jim Cramer. If you’re not in the finance world, you still know Jim Cramer – he’s the short ranting lunatic you see above the stock ticker when you channel surf past CNBC. I never watch his show or anything, but if you work in finance it’s hard not to know who he is. A video below to help inform the curious – he turns into a stark raving lunatic (even for him) around the middle. I love how awkward he makes it for the reporter in this segment.



Anyways, his introduction for the Q&A on “Freakonomics” included this quote:

"On the show, I say stupid things, yell “Booyah” with alarming frequency, and occasionally wear a diaper or jump into a pile of lettuce to illustrate the finer points of investing. God knows why, but there seems to be a market for this kind of idiocy."

Although he professes to be something of a societal misfit, that quote almost suggests he’s not truly insane, but puts on a show because that’s what the public wants, and that’s what makes him money.

So in light of this “claim”, I’d like to share my personal story with Jim Cramer. It was a standard night at Citigroup, I got off work around 10 pm and was standing in line for a black car to go home. Suddenly this bald midget in a suit and tie storms across, with a look on his face like someone just slept with his wife. He wasn't really a midget, but looked like he was under 5’2”. As he got closer, it seemed he was making a beeline right for me. Had I slept with his wife? The bald midget continued to approach, and noticed me a moment too late, and bumped me hard in the hip.

“Hey man, watch where you’re going”, I said.
“NICE quarter,” responded the midget derisively. He shook his head in disgust at me, and stormed off down the block.
What? Nice quarter? What the hell is he talking about? At that moment I recalled that Citigroup had announced earlier that day that it would miss its quarterly earnings projections by 2 cents a share. But even so, why would some random guy tell me that? It’s 10 pm, I’m just some 23-year old kid, what the hell? Ow, my hip kind of hurts.

The people in front of me in line noticed what had happened, and started to chime in.
“What was that all about?”
“What did he mean, ‘nice quarter’?”
“I think he means Citigroup missed earnings today,” I suggested.
“What? Who the hell says something like that?”

At that point, a fairly important Citigroup employee at the front of the line looked backed at us and said, “You know who that is, don’t you?”
“No, who was that?”
“That’s that lunatic who yells about stocks on TV – Jim Cramer.”
“OHHHHHHHHHHH – whoa.” Silence.

I then stepped back and took measure of what had just transpired. Jim Cramer, current television celebrity and future insane asylum patient, had consciously walked past an inconveniently located Citigroup building, and made a point to insult random junior Citigroup employees for their "poor" performance, many of whom did not even comprehend his attempted insult. Amidst all this brilliance, he rammed his shoulder into my hip, and because I bruise like a peach, I could see the effects for a couple days.

Jim Cramer is insane.