Book Review: Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich

MBAs-in-the-making can learn a lot from money madman Jim Cramer. His television investing show is a hit, and now a companion book rides atop the New York Times Business Bestsellers List.

A Book for MBAs Simply Mad About Money
by Gabby Hyman
gabby.hyman@MBA-business-schools.com
MBA-Business-Schools Book Reviewer

Jim Cramer’s Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich, by James J. Cramer, hardcover; 240 pages. Simon & Schuster, $25.

MBA students love him or hate him. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground when it comes to Jim Cramer. Cramer’s Twenty-Five Rules of Investing include the statement “tips are for waiters,” yet the founder of The Street.com doesn’t seem to mind giving out investment tips for a living. With his latest book, Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich, Cramer once again proves you don’t have to be liked to reach the number-one slot on the NY Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers list.

The Man Who Makes MBAs Think—and Argue

Scratch any number of MBA degree holders or students in MBA programs and you’ll find a hefty share of Cramer enthusiasts—and detractors. Cramer achieved popular notoriety as the “booyah”-shouting host of “Mad Money,” a television show that encourages investing money left over from bill-paying and retirement deductions. The latest book expounds Cramer’s notion that “we live in a more dynamic, more economically integrated world, and that means it takes more effort to know all the facts you need to invest wisely.”

Cramer has no half notions that his mission in life is “helping everybody get rich.” To that end, he insists Mad Money is a book that will help middle-class investors navigate the tricky waters of due diligence on the stocks he recommends on his television show. Part-huckster, part genius, the man’s a completely self-aggrandizing and wildly prancing television personality. Still, Cramer’s booming voice blasts from television sets in many an MBA household.

Cardio for Commodity Consumers

Mad Money covers the fundamentals in researching, buying, and tracking the returns on purchased stocks. Appendices include an updated cyclical chart and research checklists. “Lightning Round” chapters are provided to augment TV segments where Cramer makes split-second evaluations and how to use his C-level corporate evaluations to make prudent buys. The book also evaluates Cramer’s broadcast assessments, leaving readers with reasons why they were strong—or why they were dead wrong.

Cramer says, “I may play a total madman on TV. However, when it comes to stocks, I believe in being rigorous and methodical, not crazy.”

About James J. Cramer

James J. “Jim” Cramer graduated from Harvard in 1977 and went on to earn his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984. After graduating, he went to work in Goldman Sachs until he started his own hedge fund company in 1987. He is co-founder of TheStreet.com and author of Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World and Confessions of a Street Addict.

About the Author

Gabby Hyman has created online strategies and written content for Fortune 500 companies including eToys, GoTo.com, Siebel Systems, Microsoft Encarta, Avaya, and Nissan UK.

Posted on January 24, 2007 at 11:39 AM

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