Doom merchant attacks 'Mad' tipster

Jim Cramer, the ranting, raving share tipster from United States television, is in the middle of another high-profile feud, just weeks after being worsted by satirist Jon Stewart.

Now, the Mad Money host is waging a war of words with Nouriel Roubini, the bearish New York University economist known as Dr Doom.

Between any other commentators, it would be a mundane to-and-fro over whether the stock market and the US economy is over the worst, but the two men have characteristically escalated the rhetoric.

Mr Roubini is too "intoxicated" with his own "prescience and vision" to admit that things have been improving since the market bottomed in early March, Mr Cramer wrote in a recent blog.

But "Cramer is a buffoon", the professor countered.

"He was one of those who called six times in a row for this bear market rally to be a bull market rally and he got it wrong. After all this mess, and after Jon Stewart, he should just shut up because he has no shame."

The latest rally will fail when it becomes clear the economy is not improving and that several banks will be unable to pass the "stress tests" being carried out by the federal Government, Mr Roubini says.

"Cramer keeps insulting me personally and saying a bunch of lies," he said. "He is not a credible analyst."

Mr Cramer rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday to celebrate the 1000th edition of his share-tipping show, Mad Money, on CNBC.

The former hedge-fund manager has carved out a high-profile career as a commentator, and is famed as much for the clownish delivery and sound effects he uses as he is for his investment prowess.

He was, however, one of the first to demand that the Federal Reserve take action to tackle the chaos in the credit markets in 2007.

Mr Roubini, meanwhile, has been feted for predicting that the credit crisis will lead to widespread bank collapses and the worst recession in decades.

On the New York Stock Exchange floor last week, Mr Cramer said that he regarded being attacked by Mr Roubini as "a great badge of honour", and added: "All my attackers, I always welcome them on Mad Money."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart repeatedly attacked CNBC, and Mad Money in particular, for hyping Wall Street and failing to expose the looming credit crisis, eventually prompting Mr Cramer to go on the show for an uncomfortable interview that was widely rebroadcast on the internet.

During the interview, Mr Cramer defended his integrity, but said he wished he had seen the scale of the crisis to come and that he wished corporate chief executives had not lied to him. Independent