Plain and simple, Jim Cramer is not happy with the Fed. It was clear to Cramer that the Fed has not listened to anything corporate CEOs and companies have said when it foolishly refused to take a March rate hike off the table on Wednesday.
“All the Fed has done is sacrifice American jobs; they don’t know it, yet, because after yesterday’s announcement it is clear they haven’t been listening to many corporate conference calls,” the “Mad Money” host said.
When the Fed raised rates, it caused a spike in the dollar around the globe. That put U.S. international companies at a shocking disadvantage versus where they were before the rate hike.
“One question for the Federal Reserve, you’re doing this in the name of what exactly?”
The strong dollar wouldn’t matter if the rest of the world stayed even. But there are so many countries slowing so fast, Cramer is alarmed at how hard it is for American companies to do business overseas.
If the Fed had done nothing, there still would have been nasty foreign-exchange-related declines. However, the rate hike will cause so much damage versus so many other currencies that Cramer fears the U.S. is only now starting to feel the effects.
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“Trust me, if you go through the conference calls, you can see exactly how damning this quarter point raise was to our businesses,” Cramer said.
Cramer is seeing the currency disconnect happening all over the world, and the American worker is the biggest loser of all. That is because these U.S.-based international companies will need to find a way to make its numbers in order to please shareholders and continue its dividend.
That means the company will have no choice but to slash costs, and many of those will be in the United States.
“In plain English, it’s a heck of a lot easier to fire people these days and not skip a beat when it comes to expanding sales,” Cramer said.
Ultimately, companies will need currencies to calm down; the Fed’s current stance and the uncertainty it is creating will do just the opposite.
So, the next time an investor asks how a quarter-point rate hike can really damage the U.S. economy — Cramer says they should listen to the darned conference calls. Every company with significant foreign operations will look to find places to digitize, which is code for boosting productivity by using software and firing people.
When Cramer did his homework, he realized that the world is in crisis right now. The only country that can do something about it is the United States, and instead it has decided to crush its international companies and deliberately slow the economy’s growth.
[“source -pcworld”]
