Cramer’s 20th Anniversary Special: The Rant That Shook Wall Street 12/5/25

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer

Cramer’s 20th Anniversary Special: The Rant That Shook Wall Street

Date: December 5, 2025
Episode Theme:
A retrospective on Jim Cramer’s infamous “They Know Nothing” rant during the 2007 financial crisis, the impact it had on Wall Street, Cramer’s reputation, and the lessons learned for investors and institutions.

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Episode Overview

This anniversary special looks back at one of the most consequential and controversial moments in Jim Cramer’s career—his live, on-air outburst warning about the 2007 mortgage and credit crisis, when he accused the Federal Reserve of ignorance as financial doom loomed. The episode interweaves Cramer’s reflections, commentary from colleagues and critics, and pivotal broadcast moments. It explores the personal and professional fallout of the rant, Cramer’s vindication in hindsight, and the enduring lessons for both investors and regulators.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Prelude to Crisis

• Background on 2007 Peak:
  • Cramer highlights the trajectory of the market leading to the 2007 crash, noting seventeen consecutive Fed rate hikes and a disconnect between policy and economic reality.
  • Cramer (01:24): “Not all days are winners in the market and knowing how to handle the down days is key… there are lessons in the really bad days that can help.”
• Early Warning Signs:
  • Cramer recalls conversations with Wall Street executives about rising mortgage defaults and unsound lending practices.
  • Cramer (02:03): “Specifically if you paid attention to me back on August 3rd of 2007 when I excoriated the Fed... oblivious to the damage it was doing.”
• Colleague Reaction:
  • Vivid recollections of Cramer’s raw emotions in the CNBC newsroom as he prepared for the broadcast.
  • Colleague (02:07): “She could literally hear the screaming... it was Cramer just screaming.”
  • Producer/Narrator (02:16): “Jim Cramer was literally the only member of the media... who understood the problem that was about to start unraveling.”

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2. The "They Know Nothing" Rant: Anatomy of a Live Meltdown

• Blunt Critique of Fed Policy:
  • Cramer recounts his famous outburst, urging Ben Bernanke (then Fed Chair) to act, criticizing the Fed’s detachment.
  • Cramer (05:28): “Forget the investors... Bernanke needs to open the discount window. That’s how bad things are out there.”
• On the Brink of Collapse:
  • He details industry testimony about nearing “Armageddon” in credit markets.
  • Cramer (07:06): “No, we have Armageddon. I wouldn’t try to cause it. We have Armageddon in the fixed income markets.”
• Frustration With Complacency:
  • Cramer (07:42): “We’ll spend billions in Iraq to build homes. We are going to have thousands of people losing their homes right now... This is crazy.”
• Conflict With On-air Colleague:
  • Push-and-pull as the co-host tries to calm things while Cramer escalates his warnings.
  • Cramer (08:22): “I mean, darn, sometimes I wish I didn’t know anybody... Unfortunately, I know too many people and I’m too darn old.”
  • Co-host (08:35): “You are 62.”
  • Cramer (08:36): “I’ve been around for too long. I mean, look, I gotta tell you, [Bernanke] has got to listen.”

Memorable Quote:

• Cramer (05:28–06:32):

  “He has no idea how bad it is out there. He has no idea. He has no idea... These firms are going to go out of business. And he’s nuts. They're nuts. They know nothing!”

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3. Aftermath: Consequences and Vindication

• Immediate Market Response and Turmoil:
  • Cramer describes both the backlash and the vindication as markets continued to tank and banks failed.
  • Cramer (09:38): “Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now... Well, sure enough, the market fell another 40% before it bottomed. It's a good call.”
• Internal Discussions:
  • Cramer and colleagues debate whether to go public with such a dramatic warning, ultimately deciding honesty trumped everything.
  • Producer/Colleague (10:03): “We had a lot of discussions... I said to Jim, 'Jim, what are we doing?' And he said, 'I'm taking the money out so that we have it.'”
• Professional Fallout:
  • Cramer became a lightning rod, blamed by some for the crisis itself, including a very public takedown by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.
  • Colleague/Interviewee (11:58): “You knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months... to pretend this was... a tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.”
• Cramer’s Self-Defense:
  • He maintains that he was right, but being right did not spare him from intense scrutiny and blame.
  • Cramer (12:14): “Jon Stewart blamed me for a lot of stuff... but when you’re right, you can take it. And I knew I was right.”
  • Cramer (12:58): “I didn’t think I deserved [being the face of the crisis]. But, like in Unforgiven, deserves got nothing to do with it.”
• Colleague Support:
  • Several colleagues defend Cramer’s integrity and intent despite the controversy.
  • Colleague/Commentator (11:12): “He calls balls and strikes the way he sees it, Jim Cramer cannot be bought.”

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4. Reflection and Takeaways

• Lessons for the Fed and Investors:
  • Cramer reviews the Fed’s internal transcripts, revealing they laughed off his warnings at the time.
  • Cramer (14:29): “The just published transcript of the Fed meeting after I said 'they know nothing' — I was the butt of laughter for my passion and my insistence that the Fed was clueless...”
• Cramer’s Pride in Helping Viewers:
  • Although he “failed to wake [the Fed] from their complacency,” he is proud viewers avoided steep losses thanks to his warnings.
  • Cramer (15:03): “My passion got through to you... I am proud of that.”
• Final Gratitude and Team Acknowledgement:
  • Cramer takes a moment to thank viewers, colleagues, and the CNBC team for supporting him through turbulent times.
  • Cramer (15:12): “Now it's a sin to be too reverential to yourself. But I do want to be reverential to the staff of Mad Money, the hardest working people in show business...”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Cramer (05:28–06:32):

  “He has no idea how bad it is out there... These firms are going to go out of business. And he’s nuts. They’re nuts. They know nothing!”

• Cramer (09:38):

  “Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now.”

• Colleague/Commentator (11:12):

  “He calls balls and strikes the way he sees it, Jim Cramer cannot be bought.”

• Cramer (14:29):

  “I was the butt of laughter for my passion and my insistence that the Fed was clueless in its ignorance.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:24] Market warning signs, 2007 prelude
• [02:03] Cramer's background to the rant; newsroom reaction
• [03:49–07:12] Step-by-step breakdown of the credit crisis, Cramer’s rant escalation
• [09:38–10:29] Cramer’s call to withdraw money pre-crash; immediate aftermath
• [11:49–12:58] Daily Show and public vilification of Cramer
• [14:03–15:38] Reflections, team thanks, lessons for Fed and investors

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Episode Tone

Fiery, passionate, confessional yet ultimately vindicated, underlined with Cramer’s characteristic blend of urgency, conviction, and sense of mission—delivered with the emotional weight befitting the gravity of financial crisis and personal consequence.

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For listeners, this episode offers an unfiltered tour through one of Wall Street’s most dramatic chapters, directly from a man who risked his reputation to sound the alarm and paid the price for both his candor and his accuracy.

Transcript

[Jim Cramer]

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[Producer or Narrator]

This is the story breaking right now.

[Jim Cramer]

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[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Not all days are winners in the market and knowing how to handle the down days is key. We have you covered good and bad days here on Madmoney and there are lessons in the really bad days that can help. So let's set the stage. Back In October of 2007 the Dow peaked at a little more than 14,000. If the Fed had raised rates over and over and over again 17 times and the economy, after cheering for just a bit, fell off the cliff, took the stock market with it. It's one of those things that you could have seen coming if you paid attention. Specifically if you paid attention to me back on August 3rd of 2007 when I excoriated the Fed for having raised rates so much, oblivious to the damage it was doing to the real economy.

[Producer or Narrator]

I thought that it was a little out of character even for him.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

She could literally hear the screaming. So much so that I actually walked down to see what is going on and it was Kramer just screaming.

[Producer or Narrator]

I think that Jim Cramer was literally the only member of the media, financial or otherwise, who understood the problem that was about to start unraveling.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

There was a real question as to whether the Fed was fully cognizant of the deterioration that was going on in terms of credit quality.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

The newsroom was basically silent. I think that there was a complete sense of shock.

[Producer or Narrator]

People were panicked that Jim had said too much, or frankly, that Jim was wrong and was panicking people for no reason.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Well, shortly before I came out and set that moment with my old friend Aaron Burnett, I've been talking to the head of major Wall street firm about problems in the mortgage market. Pretty much everyone who followed the mortgage market, which is incredibly important to the healthy economy, knew that there were a lot of unsound practices occurring. Still, it was jarring when I was told by this executive that he couldn't believe how many people were beginning to default on their mortgages. Yeah, here's the keys. He talked about how many mortgages of the 2005 vintage used a term that I previously only associate with fine wine. Just weren't money good. Something that only happened once in our country's history, and that was not never supposed to happen again. That's a great depression. I was a chaos. But you know what? I had a lot of friends at.

[Jim Cramer]

A lot of firms.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

So I started making a lot of calls. I wanted to see if this 2005 vintage thing was in trouble everywhere. I was ashy when I got off the phone as the problem seemed to be spreading like wildfire. I called mortgage bankers. I called guys who ran major firms. Yeah, that's what I said. My people, everybody said the same thing. We're in big trouble. And that's why I went off so strongly on my rant.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

Everything sort of starts out down a little bit, but nothing to worry about. Ah, boring summer fight almost, you know, a day we haven't had in a long time, just not exciting. Then all of a sudden, S and P says, ooh, we're worried about Bear. Bear goes down, market goes down. And then all of a sudden, things kind of calm down. Bear comes out and says, hey, we're okay, guys. We're okay. Everything's fine. Bear goes back up to neutral markets, only down 20. Then bear comes out and says, oh.

[Jim Cramer]

Worst bond market in 22 years.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

And that's where we are right now. The market's down 150.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Memo to bear Stearns. You got to adopt a Henry Ford attitude here, which is never explain, never complain.

[Jim Cramer]

And they didn't do that. You keep your mouth shut during this period.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

You don't say a thing because you're.

[Jim Cramer]

Going to say something that people don't like.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

And we say, hey, come on, guys.

[Jim Cramer]

Keep your mouth shut.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

Come out here and talk about your exposure.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

You speak Softly.

[Jim Cramer]

And you wait to that level where.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

You think the shorts have overdone the stock.

[Jim Cramer]

And then you do what, Dick Flip.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

In 1998, you pick up the phone to guys like me and you say, 32 bid 1 million. And then you get whacked and you.

[Jim Cramer]

Come back say, 31 bid for 2 million. They're not doing that.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

That inspires more fear.

[Jim Cramer]

I don't want to create fear. I like Bear Stearns very much. But I think that at this stage, this is not a good call.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

They shouldn't have done it. And they should have just said, you know what?

[Jim Cramer]

We're doing well. And don't say another thing. Just don't say it. Because it does not.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

It does not inspire confidence to have.

[Jim Cramer]

10 headlines coming over about what to do. I don't like it.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

All right, I hear you. Now I still though, you know, when.

[Jim Cramer]

We said, look, the Dow can rally. We've seen the Dow rally.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

I'm not even. But I mean, it's just interesting. This bigger.

[Jim Cramer]

This is about Bernanke. This is about Bernanke.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

He has to be on that call.

[Jim Cramer]

Forget the investors. The investors are going to do if Bernanke was. Bernanke needs to open the discount window. That's how bad things are out there. Bernanke needs to focus on this. Alan Greenspan told everyone to take a teaser rate and then raised the rate 17% times. And Bernanke is being an academic. It is no time to be an academic. It is time to get on the Bear Stearns call. Listen, open the darn Fed window. He has no idea how bad it is out there. He has no idea. He has no idea. Kramer, I have talked to the heads of almost every single one of these firms in the last 72 hours and he has no idea what it's like out there. None. And Bill Poole has no idea what it's like out there. My people have been in this game for 25 years and they are losing their jobs. And these firms are going to go out of business. And he's nuts. They're nuts. They know nothing. Kramer, I have not seen it like this Since I went 5 bid for a half a million shares of Citigroup when I got hit in 1990. This is a different kind of market and the Fed is asleep.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

Okay, but here's the thing.

[Jim Cramer]

Bill Pool is ashamed. He's shameful. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

I know he ought to go and.

[Jim Cramer]

Read the accredited home document at least. I read the darn thing.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

Hold on. I know your passion and I Hear you. But at the same time a lot of people are saying this is. Yes, there's certain types of mortgages that aren't available. There are.

[Jim Cramer]

You can't get a horn loan. It gets rich. Like me.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

But Kramer. But Kramer, if he did what you said, which seems to me from the.

[Jim Cramer]

Way you just explained it, cut the rate, open the discovery, cut the rate.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

And cuts rates, the pressure you're going to have, that's going to cause Armageddon.

[Jim Cramer]

No, we have Armageddon. I wouldn't try to cause it. We have Armageddon in the fixed income markets. We have Armageddon.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

No, but that's not what we have.

[Jim Cramer]

We have Armageddon.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

They say even when you. When I've talked to a couple banks say it's Armageddon, they say it's repricing. They're very firm about that.

[Jim Cramer]

Great.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Okay.

[Jim Cramer]

Well let them be calm and then have them call me on the way home like they do every night and tell me, Kramer, what are you going.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

To do about it?

[Jim Cramer]

Are you going to help us? Are you going to help us? Are you going to stand on the sideline like everybody else and say that it's fine? Will somebody come on TV and tell.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

The truth about how bad it is?

[Interviewer or Co-host]

A lot of people say. These same people say it's not Ben Bernanke and the rate that matters.

[Jim Cramer]

The bond market is completely separate from it. It's entirely the right.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

The bond market is trading.

[Jim Cramer]

No, it's entirely rated. Look, we'll spend billions in Iraq to build homes. We are going to have thousands of people. We have thousands of people losing their homes right now. 14 million people took a mortgage in the last three years. 7 million of them took teaser rates or took piggyback rates. They will lose their homes. This is crazy. Yes, I am sorry to be upset about it but you have to understand what they are saying to me off the record before I come in here every night and every day and what I hear from these blow hard managers who act like call someone. For heaven's sake, go call someone. I worked at Fixed Income at Goldman Sachs. This is not the time to be complacent.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

All right?

[Jim Cramer]

I mean, darn, sometimes I wish I didn't know anybody so I could just sit here and say, you know what? Just go buy some Washington Mutual and take that yield. Unfortunately, I know too many people and I'm too darn old.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

You are 62.

[Jim Cramer]

I've been around for too long. I mean, look, I got to tell you, he has got to listen. He's got to call somebody. Bernanke has to call someone.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

He is.

[Jim Cramer]

He just has to call.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

I can't believe he's just sitting there.

[Jim Cramer]

No, no, they're not calling anybody. And Bill Poole. Bill Poole.

[Interviewer or Co-host]

I know what you call Bill Poole.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Listen to me.

[Jim Cramer]

There was a president by the name of Hoover, okay? And no one thinks much of him now. The great engineer.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Sadly, the Fed didn't listen, especially this fellow Bill Poole, who at the time was an incredibly important Fed official. He was so sanguine about things that I had to single him out in the rant. Years later, when the Fed's transcripts for that period were released, I found out that my rant was put up, but only as a joke. Soon after my they know nothing rant, we had a series of horrendous defaults of large banks and savings and loans, some of which were thought to be too big to fail and failed anyway, including the largest savings and loan and two of the largest and most fabled brokerage houses. I did my best to try to get people out, even when on the Today show, to urge anyone who needed money near term to take it out of the stock market before it was all lost.

For investors. What is your advice today? Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now. Very dramatic statement for savings. I thought about this all weekend. I did not want to say these things on TV. Well, sure enough, the market fell another 40% before it bottomed. It's a good call.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

It was very dramatic. I mean, he was basically telling people, if you need money for the next five years, get it.

[Producer or Colleague]

We had a lot of discussions the day before he was supposed to go on the Today show. And I said to Jim, jim, what are we doing? And he said, well, I'm taking the money out so that we have it. And I said, okay. That's what you got to tell people.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Then the market dropped 1,000 points that day, but it was at 11,000. If you listen to me, you got a 40% avoidance. You avoided. You dodge a 40% decline.

[Producer or Narrator]

He stuck his neck out in a way that was so potentially damaging, not only to his career, but to our show and frankly, to the entire network. And the firestorm that that set off is something I will never forget.

[Producer or Colleague]

Everybody got angry, but the guy was right. Look at what happened.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

What should make me confident that this time you're wide awake and ready to stop any crises like the one I talked about.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

I want you to know that he.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Was right at that Point we were at the beginning of this great panic. I'm not looking for the Congressional Medal of Investing, but I got some things right. I got things wrong, and I got things right, and I got 2007 right.

[Colleague or Commentator]

He voted with his heart and his conscience about what he believed in, but, you know, he calls balls and strikes. The way he sees it, Jim Cramer cannot be bought.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

He's never willing to just be bowled over simply because people don't like what he's doing. In my view, the most you can do in your life is stay true to who you are, know what your North Star is, and always make decisions you believe are right.

[Jim Cramer]

I think Jim has always worked hard to do that.

[Producer or Narrator]

One of the really, really darkest moments for me, for Jim, and for the entire Mad Money team was the Daily Show.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

You knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months and months. The entire network was. And so now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once in a lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Jon Stewart blamed me for a lot of stuff. I mean, like, okay, fine, when you're right, you can take a lot of pain. When you're wrong, you're a fool. But when you're right, you can take it. And I knew I was right.

[Colleague or Commentator]

And somebody who had been trying to help people became the person who became the personification of what was wrong with the entire system.

[Colleague or Interviewee]

I can't reconcile the brilliance and knowledge that you have of the intricacies of the market with the crazy bull I see you do every night.

[Producer or Narrator]

We watched Jim somehow get personally blamed for not only being a part of it, but essentially somehow for causing the crisis. And the moments and days following that were really hard.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

I didn't understand the motivation because I thought I'd done a lot that was good, tried to call people's attention to it, but, you know, to be overtly the face of it, I didn't think that I deserved it. But, like in Unforgiven, deserves got nothing to do with it.

[Colleague or Commentator]

Eventually, on an earnings call, I had to come out and say that it was completely unfair and inappropriate. This became a national story that Jim Cramer was being held responsible for the financial crisis. I mean, it's absurd.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

I was soundly and roundly criticized. And it's the type of thing that makes you think, well, is it worth it to try to expose things or tell the truth, to stand truth to power? I guess. I don't play for dinner. I'm fortunate enough to have done well in my life that I wasn't fearful. So what you saw was a not fearful, passionate guy who was widely held to being, let's say, office meds. And it's a shame, it's a shame, but it's what happens sometimes. And I look back and I'm proud of what I did.

[Jim Cramer]

First, let me use this moment to thank you, the viewers and to thank cnbc, the network, for giving me this amazing platform to help inform you, and.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

In that case, the Federal Reserve, about what was really happening behind the scenes, what's really driving everything from the stock market to economics and yes, to the Fed. We do have two important takeaways from the they know nothing rant, one negative and one positive. First, the negative. The Fed more than completely disregarded my comments that faithful Friday we know from.

[Jim Cramer]

The just published transcript of the Fed meeting after I said they know nothing that I was the butt of laughter for my passion and my insistence that the Fed was clueless in its ignorance. But how firms are going to go out of business and thousands of people.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Are going to lose their jobs.

[Jim Cramer]

The transcript says laughter after someone at.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

The Confab mentioned my attempts to get them to cut interest rates fast to forestall a crash. I know he who laughs lasts, laughs hardest.

[Jim Cramer]

But so what? I failed to wake them from their.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Complacency, so I didn't do my job.

[Jim Cramer]

But the more positive takeaway is that I resonated with you, the viewers. I got many of you out of stocks or at least cut you back in your holdings by sounding the alarm before the financial crisis crushed the market.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

I am proud of that.

[Jim Cramer]

My passion got through to you.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

And may I again thank our fabulous.

[Jim Cramer]

Network for sticking by me in a.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Moment that many regarded as erratic raise eyebrows at the time.

[Jim Cramer]

Now it's a sin to be too reverential to yourself. But I do want to be reverential.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

To the staff of Mad Money, the.

[Jim Cramer]

Hardest working people in show business, led by incredibly fabulous, fabulous executive producer Regina.

[Jim Cramer (narration/reflection)]

Gilgan and our amazing head writer and yes, only writer, my longtime collaborator and Cliff Mason.

[Jim Cramer]

I'm indebted to everyone from the network to the staff to most importantly, you.

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