Jim Cramer on the non-criminality of investor fraud

If they were criminalizing this it would've been the Justice Department. This is not criminal. Let's make that point. It's really important for people to understand the distinction between the SEC, and the Justice Department. The SEC does not put people in jail. They can't do that. They're procedural.

~ Jim Cramer, stock-pumper and GS-apologist extraordinaire, CNBC Street Signs, April 16, 2010

Jim Cramer on Goldman Sachs as victim in Abacus fraud

I have information, that leads me to believe that Goldman, was an investor IN, not against, but IN Abacus, and I think that's a game-changer when it comes to what the case is and what we've heard all day. [...] If this were an open-and-shut case, believe me, this is the way it works: Goldman Sachs says, 'You know what? We're sorry we did this. We're gonna throw over this guy, he's a 31-year-old-guy, he didn't know what he was doing, he was poorly supervised, we're also going to take out his supervisor, we're gonna take him out and shoot him because we understand the way the law works.' They are not doing that. Why are they so confident? Because my understanding is they were an INVESTOR, NOT shooting against the client, and that's a very important piece of... that's a very important FACT.

~ Jim Cramer, stock-pumper and GS-apologist extraordinaire, CNBC Street Signs, April 16, 2010

Goldman Sachs as the American Dream Factory

They're an American Dream Factory at Goldman Sachs [...] someone's gotta straighten out the PR problem there more than the SEC problem, frankly. [...] Like it or not, perception is 90% of reality on Wall Street. This firm, for 150-plus years, had a fantastic, client-centric position and reputation. For whatever reason, it's gone from client-centrism to where clients feel that they are potentially a counter-party to Goldman Sachs. I don't think anybody inside Goldman Sachs feels that way, but they've certainly done a horrific job of expressing that client-centrism. [...] This is really a public relations problem, this is one securities-infraction on a 30,000 person employee base... $12 billion [of lost market-cap on GS] is way overblown. [...] Listen, if you've worked on a trading desk on Wall Street you know someone can hide a ticket in a drawer. I don't care how much compliance you have, I don't care how much intensity you have in the supervisory process, it could happen to anybody. And so, I think probably people didn't know about it. You can knock Goldman for being arrogant, you can knock Goldman for being bad in PR, ya can't knock Goldman for a lack of ethics or compliance-centrism. That's been a hallmark of this organization forever. [...] Guys, you sound like a bunch of media-types trying to start a populist fire. Let's not try to start a populist fire, let's look at this clinically: you had a rogue inside this organization. You don't think there's rogues there? There's rogues everywhere.

~ Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner, Skybridge Capital, and ex-Goldman Sachs employee, CNBC, April 16, 2010

Becky Quick on Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon didn't take the economy down. He's one of the last men standing.

~ Becky Quick, CNBC, April 16, 2010

Ken Heebner on the stock market

I think it's a historic buying opportunity... The consumer is coming back. The consumer is going to be a strong supporter of this recovery.

~ Ken Heebner, as appeared on CNBC, April 15, 2010

Newsweek cover story on the economic recovery, part 2 (2010)

The last two expansions have been 120 months and 92 months, respectively. If the U.S. continues to adapt as it has, and if it produces a few more game changers like Google and Apple, there's no reason that the expansion that started in July 2009, against all the odds and predictions, can't last just as long.

~ Daniel Gross, "The Comeback Country: How America pulled itself back from the brink—and why it's destined to stay on top," Newsweek, April 9, 2010

Newsweek cover story on the economic recovery (2010)

The tale of the economy's remarkable turnaround is largely the story of swift reaction, a willingness to write off bad debts and restructure, and an embrace of efficiency—disciplines largely invented in the U.S. and at which it still excels. America still leads the world at processing failure, at latching on to new innovations and building them to scale quickly and profitably. "We are the most adaptive, inventive nation, and have proven quite resilient," says Richard Florida, sociologist and author of The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity. If these impulses are embraced more systematically and wholeheartedly, the U.S. can remain an economic superpower well into the current century.
~ Daniel Gross, "The Comeback Country: How America pulled itself back from the brink—and why it's destined to stay on top," Newsweek, April 9, 2010