Manic stock-picking rodeo clown Jim Cramer is a study in lost popularity. When the stock market was roaring, he was funny and loveable; when the economy collapsed, he became a villain, a cartoonish symbol of America's idiocy and excess.

He's also proof that money cannot buy happiness. You're rich, Jim! You have all the money in the world! But he's still incredibly pissed off about being embarrassed on national television by Jon Stewart two years ago. Cramer tells Zev Chafets that he never even saw the beatdown coming:

"As soon as he started, I realized Stewart was on a mission to make me look like a clown. I didn't defend myself because I wasn't prepared. What was I supposed to do, talk about how often I had been right? Praise myself? Get mad? I was mad, but I didn't want to give the audience any blood. The national media said I got crushed, which I did, and made me into a buffoon." He looked at his plate and shook his head. "You have a whole body of work and then - " He signaled the waitress for more coffee. "Stewart was the prosecutor, and I was Exhibit A. But what was the crime? What did I do wrong? I wasn't running Fannie or Freddie. I wasn't in charge at Countrywide. CNBC was completely good. Better than the Department of Justice. What I did every night was call these bad actors out. I sat there with Stewart and thought: He's never even seen my show. He doesn't even know what I do." He paused for a moment. "Obviously I didn't know what he does, either."

This means two things:

1. Jim Cramer was the only man in America who didn't see that coming.
2. Jim Cramer has an extremely low opinion of the Department of Justice.

But he's still rich! So fuck it.

[NYT Magazine, photo via AP]