Jim Cramer

James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American financial media personality, author, and former hedge fund manager recognized for hosting CNBC's Mad Money since 2005, a program featuring his theatrical delivery of stock recommendations and market commentary. Cramer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in government and earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, subsequently working in journalism, including helping launch American Lawyer magazine, and at Goldman Sachs before founding the hedge fund Cramer & Co. in 1987. The fund achieved self-reported average annual returns of 24 percent during his tenure through 2001, with only one negative year, after which he co-founded TheStreet.com and shifted focus to financial media. While Mad Money has drawn a large audience, empirical studies of its recommendations show they typically underperform the S&P 500 over multi-year horizons, exemplified by the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio's lagging returns compared to benchmarks from 2001 to 2016. Cramer's career includes notable controversies, such as his 2006 comments detailing hedge fund tactics like spreading rumors to influence stock prices, which prompted criticism for implying widespread manipulation, and his March 2008 on-air assertion that Bear Stearns faced no liquidity issues, issued days before the firm's collapse amid the financial crisis.

James J. Cramer was born on February 10, 1955, in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, to Jewish parents N. Ken Cramer and Louise A. Cramer. His father owned International Packaging Products, a Philadelphia-based firm that supplied packaging materials to retailers and restaurants, initially operating as National Gift Wrap & Box Company.