Help Jim Cramer—Arcade Style

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart, take note: Jim Cramer is not that bad at picking stocks, the New York Times reports. A study of Cramer’s televised market advice shows that the former hedge fund manager beat the market in 2005-07. The raw numbers from the fictional “Cramer portfolio” outperformed the S&P and other indices. With the addition of other factors, the CNBC host was merely so-so. More»

Plan set up before Jon Stewart attacks

(NEWSER) - Former Democratic National Committee chief Howard Dean is set to become a regular CNBC contributor, the Huffington Post reports—but his appointment had nothing to do with current attacks on the business network, an insider said. “This was in the works long before the Jon Stewart stuff,” a source says “but it will be good for our side to have him on.” More»

(NEWSER) - NBC CEO Jeff Zucker said today that Jon Stewart’s Daily Show attacks are “incredibly unfair to CNBC and the business media,” Broadcasting & Cable reports. “CNBC is a spectacular organization and in particular Jim Cramer,” Zucker continued. “What is going on now is absurd.” The media isn’t responsible for the financial crisis, he said, in the same way it’s not to blame for the Iraq war. More»

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart’s takedown of Jim Cramer and CNBC is indicative of a real, if fleeting, sea change in our attitudes about the economy, Thomas Frank writes in the Wall Street Journal. “The applause Mr. Stewart has received for his j’accuse is the sound of the old order cracking.” But “clueless pundits often do get on top” and “stay there,” Frank writes, “despite all manner of rebukes handed down by history itself.” More»

Even CEOs couldn't predict crisis, let alone analysts covering them

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart’s pantsing of Jim Cramer was nothing but a “cheap shot,” writes Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. CNBC’s crew wasn’t covering up the impending crisis, and neither were the CEOs they interviewed. Many, including head honchos at AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Citigroup, lost fortunes investing in their companies. If they didn’t realize the stocks were doomed, “how was even Jim Cramer to know?” More»