Cramer tries to wiggle out of confession to market manipulation

10:40p ET Thursday, March 22, 2007

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

CNBC market guru, TheStreet.com founder, and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer today briefly answered criticism of the comments he made on TheStreet.com's "Wall Street Confidential" program December 22, 2006.

Cramer declared today that he respects the securities laws, never violated them at his hedge fund, and always "played fair." And yet the videotape of the December 22 program shows him confessing to aggressively manipulating markets in his hedge fund work.

Maybe there IS a distinction between manipulating markets and violating securities laws, but on that program Cramer said what he said -- not just that manipulative trading goes on every day but that he himself was one of the manipulators, and that, indeed, manipulation is essential practice for ALL hedge funds.

Cramer's "explanation" is appended, along with the official link to the December 22 program. See for yourself again.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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The Least I Owe You

By Jim Cramer
TheStreet.com
Thursday, March 22, 2007

http://www.thestreet.com/_htmlbtb/newsanalysis/general/10345939.html

You may have seen some articles the past several days attacking me about an interview I gave recently where I discussed the kinds of manipulative trading practices that go on every day in the investing community.

Let me say this: No one knows and respects the securities laws more than I do. (I didn't go to Harvard Law School for nothing!)

When I was a hedge fund trader in the 1990s, I played fair, and I did nothing that violated those laws. But others did not play fair, and that's why I started TheStreet.com and have been writing about these abuses for nearly a decade -- to explain to my readers how the markets really work. I wanted to give transparency to the market and tell people the good and the bad.

Some professional traders don't like it when I expose how their game is played, and some of the TheStreet.com's competitors don't like it when people are interested in what I have to say. But I am going to continue to write and talk about how the markets really work -- in my own sometimes hyperbolic and tongue-in-cheek style -- and call them as I see them. That's the least I owe you.

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Editor's note: Click here to view the video, which aired Dec. 22, 2006, on TheStreet.com TV:

http://videoplayer.thestreet.com/?clipId=1373_10329438&channel=Cramer+On...

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