With the stock market temporarily halted on Thursday morning after plummeting over 7 percent shortly after trading began, CNBC host Jim Cramer took a call on live television and then returned minutes later to say that the White House was listening to his ideas to address the crisis.
Following President Donald Trump’s European travel ban proclamation amid the coronavirus pandemic that has also resulted in the NBA suspending its season, markets were thrown into turmoil once trading began on Thursday.
As the stock market ground to a halt moments after the opening bell, Cramer proposed measures the Trump administration could undertake to calm markets—namely saying the federal government should back liquidity and credit. While speaking on live TV, Cramer asked to excuse himself because he received an important phone call.
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“I do have to take this call. One moment,” Cramer said while walking away from his desk. Viewers, meanwhile, could hear him at that moment speaking into his phone.
“Go ahead and do that,” his co-host noted, adding, “Jim Cramer, take off your mic.”
A couple of minutes later, Cramer was back, and he appeared somewhat optimistic that the White House would be considering his proposals to stem the economic crisis.
“I do believe they’ll enact some of the ideas I just talked about earlier,” he declared. ”I think they will perhaps consider the idea that the federal government does not need to be paid during this period. So, therefore, the people, the working people get paid and are protected.”
“I think they’re debating the notion about whether they should have a trust fund, also debating the notion right now about whether the Federal Reserve should be able to guarantee credit lines,” Cramer continued. “The Treasury trust fund would indeed perhaps take advantage of the lower rates. It would make it so people feel that their credit lines would be backed up. I believe that these—that some of these plans that I mentioned are being debated right now.”
Later on in the segment, the Mad Money host noted that many of the plans that he’s put forward will be adopted as long as he could “persuade them,” adding, “They’re debating right now.”
Following the segment, CNBC wealth reporter Robert Frank tweeted about how remarkable the segment was, noting that this may be a “moment we may all remember” that shows Cramer's “power.”
Naturally, one wonders if Cramer is indeed the right person to listen to during the height of a financial and economic crisis, considering his track record in the run-up to the Great Recession of 2008.
