"Fed Chair" James Cramer enjoyed taking credit for yesterday's announcement that the Fed had eased its Discount Rate. But today's Barron's takes him to task for trying to keep Mad Money viewers from measuring the extent to which his stock picks underperform the market indices.
Cramer has accomplished many things. He managed a hedge fund, started TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) which survived the dot-com bust, he writes columns for New York magazine, and he provides a unique blend of entertainment and stock touting on CNBC.
But Barron's analysis of his stock picks over the last two years suggests that you would have been better off buying a low-cost stock index fund. Barron's cites an analysis by YourMoneyWatch.com that analyzed his stock picks between 7/28/05 and 8/17/07 -- finding that Cramer's picks lagged the general market averages. Specifically, his picks were up 12%, the Dow Jones Industrials Average rose 22%, the S&P 500 gained 16% and the NASDAQ was up 14%.



