AIG: The Cramer Conspiracy Theory

You knew that someone was going to come out and say it. But did you know it was going to be Cramer?

Shorts were able to take AIG down from the $20s to $4 in a week's time.
To be sure, there were plenty of problems with AIG -- including, presumably, the insurance they may have offered on the solvency of Lehman and on their debt that they would be expected to pay off.
What matters, though, is how easily hedge funds were able to take this company down through endless selling.

Ah yes, the hedge funds, the naked shorts -- why is it that every single time a company's stock collapses, shadowy short-sellers get blamed?

It's worth pointing out, too, the sheer sophistication of Cramer's fundamental analysis:

Let's take AIG. Here's a company that has lots of liabilities but also lots of assets.

This is a man who writes this kind of thing with a straight face:

I'm committed to helping investors make money in the market. That's why I'm offering $50 off on a subscription to my exclusive investing service, Action Alerts PLUS.

Of course, there's always the small print:

If you decide to subscribe you will pay only $349.95 -- a savings of $50 off the annual subscription price of $399.95. When you renew your annual subscription, it will renew at the then-current annual subscriber price.

A mere $350 for your first year? I can confidently state that buying $350 of lottery tickets would be a vastly better investment. You don't know where the market is going, and neither does Jim Cramer. So stop trying to foresee the future, and start doing something you're good at instead. After all, I don't recall Cramer ever recommending an AIG short on the grounds that it was a sitting duck for hedge funds. I guess that only became obvious in hindsight.