Cramer goes off on CDOs, which were at the heart o
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Cramer goes off on CDOs, which were at the heart of the problems we experienced in the last crisis and are now making a return. Video
Cramer's hearing that some people on Wall Street may be up to old tricks.
"And until Uncle Sam does something, I am on a mission, a mission to shame all who sell these lethal pieces of paper and to warn those who might by them."
At issue is the return of CDO's or collateralized debt obligations . Don't get turned off by the fancy language - Cramer says it's intended to be confusing so you'll look the other way.
"They're basically abstruse financially engineered bonds - essentially risky bets on housing , made riskier by the amount of leverage that funds use to juice their returns," Cramer explained.
"And we need to stop this travesty before we get a repeat of the 2007 to 2009 financial apocalypse," he added.
Although Cramer concedes CDO's may have a place in the world of professional investing, he feels it's just a matter of time before they make their way into individual portfolios.
And that Cramer can not abide.
"The sellers of these bonds will tell you that they are terrific ways to get a little more juice, or return, over all other fixed income alternatives," Cramer explained. "Eventually, less sophisticated investors who don't know any better will buy."
And Cramer fears it's these investors who will be holding CDO's when things turn for the worse. "And they will ultimately be destroyed by them just like last time," he said.
Now, the defenders of these complex, engineered bonds will say that the underlying mortgages are in much better shape now than they were back then. And perhaps they are.
In the near-term perhaps they can generate outsized returns. But if and when they take a turn for the worse, the fall out will likely be far and wide.
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Cramer thinks the time is now to demand action before these instruments become so pervasive the potential damage can't be contained.
"Don't forget that last time around these pieces of paper had so much risk that when housing went sour, they not only wiped out the investors, they also took down the companies that insured this synthetic paper," Cramer said. "Think the old AIG —and even the issuers themselves, which included Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers ."
"I would love it if the government would step in, but if I can steer just a few people away from these synthetic CDOs, I'll consider it a job well done," he said.
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