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FTC Chair Lina Khan Should Take Jim Cramer's 'Unhinged' Obsession as 'Badge of Honor'
A spokesperson for the American Economic Liberties Project called the CNBC host a "mouthpiece and cheerleader for monopolists across the economy."
May 14, 2024
The American Economic Liberties Project on Monday called outCNBC's Jim Cramer for at least dozens of "hostile" televised attacks on Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and her "historic pro-working families record."
The left-leaning group has been compiling Cramer's "most egregious on-air outbursts" over Khan since early last year and its tracker now features more than 30 clips from "Mad Money" and "Squawk on the Street."
When President Joe Biden nominated Khan to lead the FTC in 2021, she was an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School who had previously worked for the Open Markets Institute, the office of former Commissioner Rohit Chopra, and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.
As the clips collected by the project show, Cramer has described Khan as an "empty suit," "stupid," and a "total hack." The ex-hedge fund manager has also compared the agency leader's views to those of Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, and Don Quixote.
Cramer has called out specific FTC actions under Khan—repeatedly blasting a lawsuit against Amazon, a company founded by one of the richest persons on the planet—and broadly accused the "rogue" agency of "torturing all the companies that America likes."
When one of Cramer's colleagues pointed out last October that he has taken "every opportunity to just come back to Khan," he responded, "No, I've missed opportunities and I regret that."
The tracker page states that "if Cramer was accurately reporting what the FTC is doing, he would see that Chair Khan is pursuing a pro-business, pro-innovation, and pro-worker agenda. And he is capable of it: he did, for example, proclaim the FTC's case against Kroger-Albertsons to be strong."
Noting Cramer's praise for Jonathan Kanter, an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice whom the host has called a "heavyweight" and "rigorous thinker," the page adds that "he is so blinded by his obsession of Chair Khan that he sometimes even rails against her for suits brought by the DOJ and forgets to give the Antitrust Division credit for its work."
American Economic Liberties Project spokesperson Jimmy Wyderko said in a statement Monday that "Jim Cramer's anger over the FTC's enforcement record has turned into a full-blown obsession, launching nearly weekly barbs at Chair Khan with the zeal of a carnival barker defending his turf."
"This has manifested on national cable news through a series of unhinged, incoherent, and often inaccurate rants from Jim Cramer attacking the FTC for standing up to big corporations and delivering kitchen table wins to working families," he continued.
"Given Jim Cramer's role as mouthpiece and cheerleader for monopolists across the economy, Chair Khan should consider his harassment a badge of honor," Wyderko added. "We hope to see Jim Cramer get over his fixation syndrome, which is evidently even starting to frustrate his colleagues, as soon as he is able."
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CNBC Anchor Accuses UAW Leader of 'Class Warfare' for Fighting for Workers
"Record profits mean record contracts," said United Auto Workers Shawn Fain. "They've been competitive on our backs and it's time they pay up."
Aug 04, 2023
Labor advocates said Thursday that United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain is clearly "doing something right" after CNBC anchor Jim Cramer unleashed a diatribe targeting the labor leader over his ambitious demands for a new contract and his stark assessment of the "corporate greed" that's left union members struggling to make ends meet.
Cramer has spoken multiple times on CNBC in recent days about the ongoing negotiations between the UAW and the Big Three automakers—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—and has called Fain "frightening" for advocating for a wage increase to reflect the record profits the companies have reported in recent years.
Fain has been "talking about capitalism and the nature of capitalism and how it's really hurt workers," said Cramer, who compared him to influential former UAW leader and civil rights activist Walter Reuther—"as if it's a bad thing," noted one journalist.
Fain, who was elected to lead the union earlier this year, announced members' demands earlier this week in a speech broadcast on Facebook Live, highlighting the need for a significant pay raise to make up for years of concessions by the union following the Great Recession, the rising cost of living and inflation, and to match pay increases enjoyed by the CEOs of the Big Three.
"Big Three CEOS saw their pay spike 40% on average over the last four years," said Fain. "We know our members are worth the same and more."
Ahead of a September 14 deadline, after which the UAW could go on strike, the union is demanding an immediate 20% pay raise followed by an additional 5% raise in each year of the four-year contract.
According to the union, most new workers start out making $16 per hour, but if cost-of-living increases had been maintained since the Great Recession, the starting wage would be $28.68—about $21,000 more per year.
The union is also calling for a return of the defined benefit pension, which would give retired workers a set amount of money each month; the right to strike if a company threatens to close a plant; more paid time off; restored cost-of-living allowance increases; and other provisions.
Fain also spoke about the potential to shift to a 32-hour workweek to allow workers to spend more time with their families.
"Our members are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week just to make ends meet—that's not a living," Fain said. "We have to work longer and harder to maintain the same standard of living... That means missing Little League games and family reunions."
"That's barely surviving, and it needs to stop," he said.
Cramer took issue with Fain's suggestion that Big Three shareholders and CEOs have been "overly rewarded" and scoffed at the notion that shareholders are "fat cats."
"That's class warfare and it's very shocking to hear class warfare," said Cramer.
In his address earlier this week, Fain said the automakers can "easily" afford to substantially increase workers' wages. The companies have made a quarter of a trillion dollars in North American profits over the past 10 years, and reported a combined $21 billion in profits in the first half of this year.
"Record profits mean record contracts," said Fain. "They've been competitive on our backs and it's time they pay up."
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The CNBC Republican Debate: Bring In the Clowns
Oct 29, 2015
The CNBC Republican presidential debate last night opened with a startling bolt of straight talk: "We are on the verge, perhaps, of picking someone who cannot do this job," said Ohio Governor John Kasich, ignoring the inane moderator request that the candidates begin the debate by naming their biggest weakness.
"I've watched to see people say that we should dismantle Medicare and Medicaid and leave the senior citizens out - out in the - in the cold. I've heard them talk about deporting 10 or 11 [million ]- people here from this country out of this country, splitting families. I've heard about tax schemes that don't add up, that put our kids in a deeper hole than they are today."
Donald Trump sniffed dismissively: "[Kasich] was such a nice guy. And he said, oh, I'm never going to attack. But then his poll numbers tanked... And he got nasty."
Straight talk never had a chance after that. Kasich began looking like the drunk railing at the end of the bar. And the debate veered into the wingnut fantasies about 10 percent flat taxes (Ted Cruz, Ben Carson), government so small "I can barely see it" (Rand Paul), corporations and markets that somehow self-regulate (virtually everyone), the liberal media and government as the root of all evil (unanimous).
Horse Race Musings
The talking heads, of course, focus on winners and losers. Since more people hear about the debate than watch it, the media's consensus usually congeals into the public takeaway. By this measure, the second team - Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz - will likely enjoy a bump from the debate. Both stayed on message and roused the crowd with assaults on the moderators and mainstream media (the Democrats' real super PAC, Rubio charged).
Jeb Bush fared worst, getting schooled by Rubio, providing a punch line for Chris Christie, and generally looking like he wished he were doing other "cool things." Carson and Donald Trump, the front-runners, didn't make much impact. Mike Huckabee had good moments defending Social Security and comparing the government to the runaway military blimp in Pennsylvania. Paul and Carly Fiorina faded.
More interesting is the measure of who wins and who loses. It isn't the person with the most sensible policy ideas or the most compelling record. It isn't the truth-teller. Winners are those who "stay on message," who "score points" against their opponents, who are glib and facile in the heat of debate. Carson utters lunacy with a somnambulant calm that seems effective. Rubio deals adroitly with his ruinous personal finances, his flip-flops on policy, his lies about his tax plan, his pervasive shallowness, and so is crowned the night's winner.
The Populist Right
These Republicans - other than Jeb - have learned to appeal to the populist temper of the times. They are most compelling as they detail the decline of the middle class, the rise of the 1 percent, the stagnation of incomes. They rail about our corrupted politics, about crony capitalism, big corporations using big government to crush the little guy. They condemn loopholes and tax lawyers. Cruz pledges that under his tax plan, "hedge fund millionaires" will pay the same rate as their secretaries (not to mention that they will pocket an obscene tax break in the process). When talking about little guy, these folks sound like Bernie Sanders proteges; they feel the Bern.
Of course, their answer to all this is to savage government. Big government (not counting the military) is the root of all evil. Their tax plans (and imperial fantasies) would require the elimination of virtually every function of government while doling out huge tax breaks to the richest Americans. Their regulatory rollbacks would free up the banks, the drug companies, the corporate behemoths, insuring epidemics of fraud and abuse. And except Huckabee and Trump, they seem intent on cutting Social Security and Medicare, adding to our looming retirement crisis.
Missing in Action
Also striking is what is absent from the debate. There is no mention of the shocking decline of our public infrastructure - everything from roads and bridges to water systems - that is increasingly dangerous to our health and costly to the economy. There is not a murmur about deregulated Wall Street blowing up the economy, causing a crisis that doubled the national debt as a percentage of GDP, and savaged the middle class. There is no mention - other than Trump on the stump - of our ruinous trade policies. Only the moderators raise climate change, with Chris Christie offering nonsense in response. This list can go on.
And Kasich is right: these candidates are selling fantasies. They reject arithmetic and confound logic. They can't admit that a flat tax - a tax that lowers top rates - gives the wealthy a massive tax break. They can't admit that a 10 or 15 percent flat tax raises trillions less in revenue. Like incoming House Speaker Paul Ryan, they can't admit that their pledge to cut taxes, balance the budget and expand the military will require gutting the domestic functions of the federal government - from education to disease control.
And somehow, at a time when the rich capture ever more of the wealth, when the profit share of GDP is near record highs and the income share near record lows, they argue that cutting taxes on the rich and accountability on the corporations will magically generate growth. No wonder Kasich, who does believe in addition, is reduced to railing like the drunk at the end of the bar.
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