John Oliver Calls Out Jim Cramer’s Cringe Inflation Takes, Compares Him to a ‘Garbage Can Full of Cocaine and Business School Pamphlets’
Jim Cramer’s changing views on inflation had HBO’s John Oliver asking this week, “what if a garbage can full of cocaine and business school pamphlets wished to be a real boy?”
Discussing the current inflation crisis, Oliver turned to the CNBC host and accused him of flip-flopping on the issue of inflation rather quickly, seeing it last year as not a problem, but then becoming a “full-blown inflationista” in a matter of months.
“Most economists thought inflation would go away on its own. And some of the loudest voices on Wall Street were arguing against the Fed raising interest rates because they too thought inflation would be transitory,” Oliver said on Last Week Tonight on Sunday. “For instance, here is Jim Cramer — the answer to the question, what if a garbage can full of cocaine and business school pamphlets wished to be a real boy? — making that very argument in November of last year.”
In the clip, Cramer declares “team transitory is going to win” and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should not “slam the brakes on the economy.”
“I say stop freaking about inflation,” Cramer declared.
The clip, Oliver argued to his laughing audience, “has not aged well.”
“OK, setting aside the fact that he’s speaking with an intensity level there, best described as Patti Lupone admonishing a rude audience member, it’s pretty clear that this clip, much like Jim Cramer himself, has not aged very well,” the comedian said.
In a clip pulled from six months later, Cramer is rather gloomy about inflation, admitting, “I didn’t know that it’s as bad as it is.”
“I think that Powell may not understand,” Cramer said. “We got to break this. We got to break this now because this is the week you realize it’s just inflamed, and it is not going away.”
Stammering, Cramer said he is “shocked” at how bad inflation is.
“It’s in every aisle. The inflation’s in every aisle,” he said, flabbergasted.
“He went from loudly unconcerned about rising prices to full-blown inflationista in a matter of months,” Oliver said.
The comedian then pulled up a screenshot of Cramer’s shocked expression and added, “what exactly is going on with this expression right here? That is not the face you make when you’re concerned about inflation. That’s the face you make when you’re watching a giraffe give birth.”
Watch above via HBO.
