Talking dollars and sense with Jim Cramer

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Jim Cramer, the wildly energetic host of CNBC's "Mad Money" and co-founder of TheStreet.com, is a bull in a bear market. He rushes from one topic to another -- his long-term picks, CEO compensation, averting a crash. In addition to his autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict," the father of two daughters also authored several self-help investment books, his latest being "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)."Excerpts from an interview:Q: In your interview last week with Sen. Hillary Clinton, she proposed the idea of international oversight when it comes to financial markets. Is that feasible?A: Yeah ... it's in everybody's interest. If you listen to what happened with Bear Stearns, it was a group of European banks that were in trouble. So it certainly makes a lot of sense. It's kind of imperative. The takeaway of what happened here, this was all one nation basically. This was not a U.S. issue.Q: Did we avert an all-out crash by bailing out/merging Bear Stearns?A: Definitely.Q: If someone as savvy as you can be blindsided by a Bear Stearns debacle, what chance does the little guy have?A: I think the takeaway has to be that you should take less risk. I don't think that's wrong. I think people should try to take less risk to make money.Q: CEOs of failed companies, including Bear Stearns, are handsomely compensated. Why isn't some of the compensation taken away and used to help pay stockholders, creditors and with bailouts?A: I don't know how these boards can live with themselves. They gave these packages (beforehand, before all the issues came home to roost). What happens is they go to a compensation consultant and the compensation consultant says "OK look, the person at Goldman is making this. That is how you defend the package." ... The much-criticized Eddie Lampert at Sears doesn't take any money. He just has a lot of stock. If the stock goes up, he does great. He doesn't have a salary.Q: On one of your college tours last year, you advised a young investor that Google and Sears Holdings and Goldman Sachs were all good long-term plays. Still true? And what do you consider long-term?A: Yeah, absolutely I continue to (recommend them as long-term plays). I think over the next 10 years, those are going to be gigantic companies. Right now, there's a slump in advertising, but Google, (which has) 6 percent of the advertising market now, should get 10 percent of the advertising market. If it does that, it's going to earn a huge amount. So that's a play on the migration that everybody agrees (is happening, with) TV, radio, print losing money to the Web. (With) Sears, you're in Eddie Lampert's hedge fund. His hedge fund was the No. 1 performing hedge fund from 1988 until a year ago, and you're now in since his biggest position is Sears. Goldman Sachs is the only one that wasn't destroyed by mortgages.Q: Has "Mad Money" increased subscribers to TheStreet.com?A: Yeah, definitely. But when I do something on "Mad Money," for the most part the stocks that I recommend, I do not own for my charitable trust ... that's just not right.Q: So are you living the dream now doing both things you love, journalism and stocks?A: No, I'm not living the dream. Frankly, I wish I weren't doing stocks. I would just like to do journalism. It's too hard. I've been working too hard. I would tell you the show's a dream and everything else is work.Q: Are your girls interested in being Wall Street traders?A: Not the least bit. They hate it. They hate it. I mean, I want to emphasize that: They hate it.(Patricia Sheridan can be reached at psheridan(at)post-gazette.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)