sign. then drive. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer ends december 2nd. for details, visit vwdealer.com today. >> my mission is simple. to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull somewhere. i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i just want to help you make money. i'm here to teach and coach so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. is there a bubble in the stock market? if there is a bubble, is it so inflated that it will lead necessarily to a crash?

as surely as the the hindenburg zeppelin exploded in lakehurst, new jersey, back in 1937? these are the questions that need to be answered, particularly on a day like today when the dow gained, s&p climbed and nasdaq advanced. so that people can make informed decisions about a stock market at historic highs that seem like they never want to quit. first let's address the overall market bubble issue. chief bubble blower ben bernanke is giving way to janet yellin at the fed. many think that's reality. there's no doubt the federal reserve's policy have greatly and positively impacted this bull market, by keeping interest rates low thereby eliminating competition, you put a floor under stocks that give you outsize yields versus the miserable 0.8% rate that you get on a five-year cd as of today.

the fed has turned these stocks into bond market equivalents, a huge plus. capital so cheap companies can afford to buy back their stock, much more aggressively than in past cycles which can radically inflate the earnings per share and in some cases put floors under those stocks. the fed's easy policies allow more people to buy cars, homes, consumers with decent credit can get cheap financing. that leads to more autos being built, which requires more workers to be hired. as you can see today, with the huge rally in housing stocks because yellin says she embraces the bernanke policy, home builders can put people to work and companies like home depot and sherwin williams are hot but can do better. housing punches above its weight in the general economy, and the collateral positives from the fed's largesse ripple throughout the stock market. but isn't that the real point here? it's not collateral damage. these are collateral positives. matters that aid the wealth of the fed, where people feel flush

and do more spending, which gives retail a boost. they're matters that allow more people to be hired because businesses need to expand. matters that get the economy moving, and that's an imperative. i mention these points because the government away from the federal reserve is on the polar opposite course. our government away from the fed is cutting back spending, reducing stimulus and hurting the economy at every single turn. the only area it's putting money into is health care, but medicare money has much less of a multiplier effect than the fed stimulus does. in other words, the rest of the government away from the fed punches below its weight. which brings me back to this bubble concept. an elevated market per se isn't that dangerous. all i think we have here is an elevated market, nothing more. janet yellin's comments today will continue to help that elevation, so it pays to have more exposure to stock than if say yellin is worried and is going to start tightening. the fed is only going to take its foot off the gas and slam on the brakes if companies are doing better.

you have this strange situation where if you think stocks are a giant bubble waiting to pop, you must understand the alleged bubble will be popped by something good, not bad for the stock market. something positive, not negative for stocks. let's remember, please, not all these bond market equivalent stocks, the ones elevated by the fed are necessarily expensive. lots of people have commented to me over and over again that consumer packaged goods stocks like kimberly clark are overvalued because of their high dividends. kimberly announced the stock's up 6 in after-hours trading. if you were short kmb betting the bubble would soon burst, you have double bubble popped all over your face. eww, nasty. plenty of people think this is all wrong. they believe the collateral positives are no different from collateral negatives or collateral damage. it's just all bad. but i don't make those kinds of judgments here. they get in the way of making money. they get in the way of the

process of getting rich, which we should never forget is what we're supposed to be doing when we invest in the stock market. passing judgment on the process or the fed itself is merely a parlor game to me, no different from trying to figure out whether the jets or bills will win this sunday's football game. we're trying to make money here and i will not let that parlor game get in the way of my thinking. i am playing kimberly clark. i'm not playing desean jackson. this is realty, not fantasy. even as desean figures big in my league. aha, now, what about the fed's actions leading to inflation? wouldn't that be terrible? i get that next. that's next in the litany. yes, i hate inflation as much as you do. but remember it's deflation that the fed is fighting, not inflation. the deflation that comes from a tight-fisted congress and from free trade, like the consequences of nafta, which allow our companies to pay less and less for labor and our goods cost less and less. sure, inflation will be bad.

since there's no evidence right now we need to be worried about it, i'm not going to worry about a phantom. we have plenty of slack in the system, not tightness. do you mind if we wait until we get a couple of months worth of data that actually shows inflation may be a problem sometime down the road before we start worrying it's about to happen now? let's not forget the money management imperative, so you understand behind the scenes. even if you think i'm wrong about inflation, even if you believe what the fed is doing will end badly, and what we're ultimately going to be is in a heap of trouble from these collateral positives i mentioned, let me remind you that need to catch up to the averages is forcing those managers into the market, not out of it. meanwhile, the supply of stock normally should be growing as we go up, but it's actually dwindling, as winning managers are not about to ring the register. they're letting it ride. don't sneer at these kinds of profits. the performance gains you get now are every bit as legitimate as the gains made during the beginning of the year when the market was lower thanks to strong fundamentals. now, there's another bubble

argument out there and it has to do with what's happening in the internet space. for instance, twitter's valuation, is it a bubble? is facebooko offering $3 billion to the 23-year-old who invented snap chat constitute a bubble? yes, absolutely. but i don't know what to do about that, other than to tell you that it's bubblicious. i'm not going to go outside my traditional metrics to foment reasons why these stocks could be cheap. i'm not going to do that. however, i will tell you that the reason these stocks can trade where they do is amazon. that's a real company. you see, amazon is the bubble umbrella, it's what allows for the rise in these stocks that don't have profits now, might not have them for years to come. amazon, which hit a new high today, is a $168 billion company that doesn't show a profit. so how do we know if yelp or twitter or facebook isn't the next amazon?

facebook, by the way, is very profitable. isn't it worthwhile to bet they might be amazon? i can see why you would. in fact, let me go a step further. a lot of people think if you're buying twitter you are buying into the greater fool theory that someone who is even dumber than you are is going to buy the stock higher than you and let you make money. let's say someone took you out of amazon at $80 after you bought the stock at $70, wise guy making 10 bucks. with amazon now at $367, who's really the greater fool? and don't forget if apple or microsoft were to buy twitter i think their stocks would actually go higher. look, i believe it's entirely possible to have a side-by-side situation, where the current internet bubble can occur at the same time that the overall market goes higher. the 3d printing bubble can occur while the market goes higher, the tesla bubble, the netflix bubble. remember, i don't actually believe the overall market is in bubble mode. i think it's elevated but still reasonably priced versus other asset classes. for better or worse, relative valuation, not absolute valuation is the method that got

me here, the method that i use to identify bargains. in the end i'm not giving up on the stock market. not down here. maybe later, but not yet. even as i never frown on anyone taking a profit. for now, there's nothing wrong with being along for the ride, as the banks take this kind of winnings just like it takes your winnings from the less expensive, less elevated market with lower valuations and much cheaper stocks. i need to go to brian in missouri, please. brian? >> caller: hey, jim. big mizzou boo yah from columbia, missouri. >> thank you, man. >> caller: i want your thoughts on general motors. treasury just sold a billion shares today. i'm up 15 percent since acquiing it. should i take profits now? >> no. tim masset handled that selling for the government. that was a t.a.r.p. selling. he's now going to be running the cftc. he's a man of great integrity. gm can go higher. it's very inexpensive. i think europe is still turning

for them, china is strong for them, especially the volkswagen recall will only help gm. buy gm, not sell it. michael in virginia? >> caller: hey, jim. thank for having me on. >> no problem. >> caller: i'm going clean energy, clne, down $11.75 a few days ago. today it closed at $13 a share. i'm just wondering what you think about the company and where it's going from here. >> i believe in the concept of clean energy. i think andrew littlefair has done a remarkable job in the face of a government that does not favor fossil fuels, perticularly natural gas. that said, i think this is a speculation. if you have a nice profit in spec, you know what i say, always take it. sorry to burst your bubble, but i'm not giving up on this market. not here. not now. we're going to keep an eye on things and we're going to do it together. but i do not sanction leaving this market while i never mind you taking a profit. "mad money" will be right back. >> announcer: coming up, secret ingredient? satisfying stocks. super sized returns.

cramer's "hunger gains" series continues this week. and tonight we're spicing things up. popeye's chicken owner afc enterprises is down after narrowing its outlook. but is its growth story still intact? find out in cramer's exclusive. and later, fashion police? after some big missteps, teen retailer abercrombie & fitch isn't looking pretty. down over 25% so far this year. but could its stock finally be ready for the runway? cramer decides. plus, bad medicine? the government's health care overhaul seems to be sputtering. is this the opportunity for private players to make an impact? amn health care helps providers save valuable capital. could it create value for you? cramer speaks to the ceo, ahead. all coming up on "mad money." don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jim cramer on twitter.

tweet cramer #madtweets. send jim an e-mail to madmoney@cnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc. miss something? head to mad money.cnbc.com. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪

♪ ♪ so you can have a getaway from what you know.uture. so you can be surprised by what you don't. get two times the points on travel and dining at restaurants from chase sapphire preferred. so you can taste something that wakes up your soul. chase sapphire preferred so you can. [ sniffles, coughs ] shhhh! i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh what a relief it is! ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good.

sometimes the market just overreacts, giving you terrific opportunities to buy high-quality stocks at a rare discount. take afc enterprises, the parent company of popeye's. a stock that's up an astounding 60% on year to date. the business has been on a roll as management remodels restaurants, changes the concept from popeye's chicken and biscuits to popeye's louisiana kitchen. afc, with revenues that came in higher than expected up 26.7% year over year, sales up 5.1%, stock still got hammered, falling over 7% in a single session. the reason for the bruising? management gave guidance that wall street found somewhat disappointing, $1.39 to $1.42

and analysts were looking for $1.44. that's narrow from 3.5 to 4.5 last quarter. when a stock with this amount of momentum reports anything slightly low it's going to get slammed. however, i think they've been punished enough especially considering their long term track record. here is a stock that's given you an 80% gain since we first interviewed the ceo in august of last year. don't take it from me. let's check in with cheryl batchelder, the ceo of afc. hear more about the quarter and her company. welcome back to "mad money". >> thank you, jim. good to see you. >> i think everything is on target. your pillars are coming in perfectly. the last quarter was great. i was surprised to read that in the last few weeks things were not up to snuff. is there something that happened beyond the consumer confidence in the country that could explain this, or could it bounce right back? >> you know, i think it was important to let the market know where we're going to land the year, and at 3.5% to 4% same

store sales for this year, this is going to be a great year for popeye's. i simply wanted the market to understand that when consumer confidence falls nine points in one month that it's important to the quick service sector and to our business, and we saw a slowing in the growth rate of our company. but our guidance is solid and strong, and we're going to have a very good year in both comp sales, new units opened, restaurants remodeled, and the profitability of our restaurants for our owners. we're really proud of this third quarter. >> is it possible that even with that slowdown in comps, given the lower price of chicken for your franchises obviously means more to you, and for the fact you may have new menu ideas, that it may turn out to be a very profitable year, even though the same store sales may not be what the street was looking for? >> you know, it's going to be a great year for franchisee profitability. our second quarter results are just in. our restaurants are making 21.8% restaurant operating profit,

that's best in class, and it's on the heels of strong sales leverage and good cost controls. as you mentioned, corn has come down nearly $1 a bushel. the fourth quarter commodity costs will be even better than the third quarter, and that opens up two opportunities, jim. i think that will make for good promotional pricing environments, so that we can offer compelling value and continue to offer the exciting innovations that we have in the past, like the waffle chicken tender that drove our third quarter. >> do you think that this kind of last couple week deceleration makes you even more adamant you've got to be in worldwide locations that are much less levered to just one country? >> you know, it makes me adamant about two things. one is market share is the measure of success in this fragile consumer environment that we're in in the u.s. so we continue to outperform our competitors, both chicken competitors and qsr. that's the measure to watch. then to your point about global opportunity, we're one of the few qsr brand that's has the

opportunity to double in size in the u.s. and then rapidly move around the world. one of the numbers i'm proudest of in this third quarter is our international comp sales are up 5. we're positioning our brand well in the countries where we compete, and we're building strong auvs, average unit volumes and strong profitability for our international owners as well. >> cheryl, in the last quarter, the company retired common stock. let's say the stock stays down here. i know it's difficult to play with a real open hand on this stuff. it stays down three, is that another opportunity to be able to retire more stock? >> we've guided we may retire between $15 million and $20 million worth of stock this year. we've been a pretty steady buyer of our stock over time. and i think we're on track to do that. our first and best use of capital is to invest in the organic growth of popeye's and that's why you saw our capital expenditures go up this year to build some big, beautiful, successful new company restaurants, to remodel those

restaurants in minneapolis and california that we bought last year. i think we are using our cash flows aggressively first and foremost to grow the popeye's brand. >> do you think there may be other chains that are not doing as well as you, that are making promotions, value promotions that could be hurting your business? >> anytime the consumer environment gets fragile, i think you see companies in our sector overreact and go purely to value. that has not been and will not be our strategy. we believe it's about innovation, priced right for your pocketbook, and a combination of great new ideas priced at good price points, not just value play. >> one last question. i'm concerned that -- look, i've obviously been very behind you and i think -- all i worry about is that -- are you in a moment where you're a victim of your own success? you've got the best stacked comps of any restaurant chain i follow. is it just possible that maybe that can't be maintain because

it's so-called too good? >> well, you know, jim, you know that i'm a long-term player. i'm not worried about today. we are a growth concept that's stacked up 22 quarters of performance, and we work on stacking up 23 next. we want to be a reliable, high performing investment for our shareholder, and that's what we're going to focus on this quarter and the next and the next after that. >> excellent. thank you so much, cheryl. ceo of afc enterprises. thank you for being on the show. >> thank you, jim. >> guys, most people would kill for the comps that she just guided down to. isn't that what's important? it's a relative issue. her comps are better than almost everybody else's. that's why down three i think the stock is a buy, not a sell. stay with cramer. >> announcer: coming up, fashion police? after some big missteps, teen retailer abercrombie & fitch isn't looking pretty. down over 25% so far this year. but could its stock finally be ready for the runway? cramer decides. [ horn honks ]

[ passenger ] airport, please. what airline? united. [ indian accent ] which airline, sir? [ passenger ] united. whoa taxi! [ british accent ] what airline, then? [ passenger ] united. all right. [ spanish ] what airline? [ passenger ] united. ♪ [ mandarin ] which airline? [ passenger ] united. [ arabic ] which airline? [ passenger ] united. [ italian ] where are we going? [ passenger ] united. [ male announcer ] more destinations than any other airline. [ thai ] which airline do you fly? [ passenger ] united.

[ male announcer ] that's great, big world friendly. ♪ customer erin swenson ordebut they didn't fit.line customer's not happy, i'm not happy. sales go down, i'm not happy. merch comes back, i'm not happy. use ups. they make returns easy. unhappy customer becomes happy customer. then, repeat customer. easy returns, i'm happy. repeat customers, i'm happy. sales go up, i'm happy. i ordered another pair. i'm happy. (both) i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. happy happy. i love logistics.

i'm always going on about how important it is for companies to have good management and how top-notch ceos can help you make boat loads of money. but i realize this is kind of an intangible concept, one that can be hard to get your arms around. i spend a lot of time talking about the positive consequences of good leadership lately, but if you want to know why management really matters, you need to understand how bad leadership can wreck a once high-quality enterprise. boy, oh, boy, can i think of a stunning example. what does bad leadership look like? right now, at this very moment, if you were to look up horrible management in the encyclopedia cramerica, i bet you see a

picture, no, not john chambers of cisco, but of michael jeffries. he's the long-time chairman and ceo of abercrombie & fitch. all sorts of apparel retailers, everybody from gap stores to macy's to american eagle outfitters just posted nice beat, positive guidance last week. heck, even jcpenney has been getting more positive. that company has been the benchmark for retail disasters. yet at this moment when so many retailers are doing so well, abercrombie & fitch delivered truly hideous numbers a week and a half ago. stock is down 27% year to date, s&p 500 is up 25%. s&p retail etf has rallied 40%. so we've got some really ugly underperformance going here. but if that was all there was, a bad quarter, a broken stock, i wouldn't be coming out here to criticize ceo mike jeffries. while i might tell you to sell abercrombie, i'm not sure i'd give it a full thursday sell block. we know the teen retail industry can be incredibly fickle.

unfortunately, there is so much going wrong at abercrombie & fitch that the "teens are fickle" excuse can't possibly cover all of what's going wrong. which is why tonight i'm putting mike jeffries on the "mad money" wall of shame. now, before i get into the gory details, let me just say that i did not want to do this. mike jeffries is not a fly-by-night or a flash in the pan. he has a storied history. he built abercrombie from virtually nothing to become one of the hottest brands of the '90s and first six or seven years of the new millennium. i was initially reluctant to put a ceo like that up on this wall of misfit managers. insulted. in this business you cannot afford to rest on your laurels. the stock market always wants to know, what have you done for me lately? when it comes to mike jeffries, the answer is not much at all. over the last two years, a & f stock has been hammered.

this used to be the hottest teen brand in the world. under jeffries recent leadership, it's become practically irrelevant. there's so much going wrong, it's hard to know where to start. this past may, abercrombie reported some incredible bullish forecasts, hyping the results to high heaven. jeffries comes out and says, we are excited and energized by all these initiatives and look forward to sharing more details as we move through the years. sounds like things are going great guns, right? but then literally just a few months later, a & f delivers one of of the most profound corporate earnings i've seen since we were in the depths of the great recession. could this guy be more clueless? or consider abercrombie's most recent quarter. the decline in same store sales was hideous. even worse, they then gave four year earnings guide from $1.40 to $1.50 when stock market expects $1.90. that's slash and burn, awful. especially when you consider at the beginning of the year

abercrombie was forecasting at least $3.30. that's right, guidance has cut in half and then some. talk about the inability to manage expectations. abercrombie is now looking at awful margin erosion in the current quarter. they are marking inventory down. not a good sign. the company holds an annual meeting. people thinking he's going to announce the big changes. some analysts held out hope at that point that abercrombie might start making the massive revitalizations to right size the business, turn around and reinvent its flailing brands. no. it was like management had no idea how much trouble they were in. instead we got high level discussion of marketing, cost cutting productivity improvements. these are the kinds of initiatives you want to hear from a solid company in good shape and wants to get even better. abercrombie is in dire straits. ceo mike jeffries doesn't seem to know it. he tells us they're going to

shut down 40 stores a year domestically. it's what it's been doing. it isn't enough. meanwhile the company is opening gigantic destinations overseas even as its domestic sales decline. now let's get to the heart of the problem. i think jeffries is still acting like this is 1999 or 2003 when abercrombie was the epitome of cool for teenagers in the country. guess what, it's 2013 and this brand simply does not appeal or resonate to today's teenagers like it did to the teens of a decade ago. it hasn't changed with the times. i guess jeffries was maybe not a big bob dylan fan. if you were a kid in the '80s, did you want to wear the clothes that were the height of cool in the '70s? that's the position abercrombie is in right now. if you want to know why it doesn't resonate with teens it's worth examining the selective quotations of mark jeffries. this is a 69-year-old ceo who says things like, we go after the cool kids. we go after the attractive, all-american kid with a great

attitude and a lot of friends. a lot of people don't belong, and they can't belong, end quote. or how about this morsel, quote, people said we were cynical, that we were sexualizing little girls, but you know what? i still think those are cute underwear for little girls and i think anybody who gets on the bandwagon about thongs for little girls is crazy, end quote. what? this one is my favorite. i think that what we represent sexually is healthy. it's playful. it's not dark. it's not degrading. and it's not gay and it's not straight, end quote. coming from a guy who's nearly 70 years old, i find that stuff, let's use this word, creepy. and i have to tell you i was prepared for a little jocularity tonight about this piece. i was going to throw on some abercrombie stuff, make some jokes like i like to do. but i don't know, after researching this piece, i didn't think it was really time for that kind of frivolity. i don't think it was called for. there's one piece of good news

here. that's that jeffries' contract expires at the end of the year. i think it's time for abercrombie to let him go, get a real board of directors not made of hand-picked mike jeffries puppets and bring a plan to shut down underperforming stores. here's the bottom line. mike jeffries, i know you have a storied past, but now you're just storied. it's time to put you on the "mad money" wall of shame. buddy, it's also time for you to retire. abercrombie & fitch is going to turn things around, it needs a younger ceo who's not stuck in the past, someone to recognize the company is in dire straits and will take drastic action to do something about it. until that happens, i think shareholders are going to continue to pay the price. michael in new jersey? >> caller: jim, booyah to you. ge apparel, where do you see them going? >> man, one thing every now and then really drives me crazy, and in this particular case, what

drives me crazy? i'm going to be very clear. mr. goldfarb has not come on the show so i can congratulate him for the new look, the new feel. he should bring carl banks, my favorite new york giant, who also is integral to the success. i think g-iii goes much higher and if you talk with manny chirico, the bankable ceo from pvh, you will hear exactly the same thing. that's a winner. by the way, i really want an eagles jacket while i'm at it, but i will pay. i mean, i'll pay money. can i speak to ara in ohio, please. >> caller: i'm calling about the peg ratio and using to determine whether a stock is cheap or not. you interviewed the ceo of iconix.

doing my homework, i was shocked when i saw the peg was below one. it's had a great run. based on a 22% five-year growth rate, the company has a peg of less than one. what makes it stand out to me is its one-third the peg of other high fliers. am i crazy to think the stock is ridiculously cheap and should be much higher? >> i'm not going to disagree with you. if you recall from that interview, i was incredibly bullish about the prospect. i had been skeptical. remember, he came on, i came away very sold. and i continue to be sold. that stock, i agree it goes higher. anf storied past, storied ceo. but now it needs new management. and, yeah, it's very easy to make fun of the story, but when you look at those quotes, i don't know about you, i found it disturbing. stay with cramer.

[ engine revs ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the mercedes-benz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle that's just right for you, no matter which list you're on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] get the all-new 2014 cla250 starting at just $29,900.

it is time, it is time for the lightning round. play to this sound and then the lightning round is over. are you ready ski daddy? i'm dedicating this round to the fbi whom i had the great pleasure to speak to today in the new york office. let's start with morgan in california. >> caller: dr. cramer, how are you doing? >> very good. i'm glad for that promotion. i always wanted a little something real to do. what's up? >> i'm trying to get my hands on my own boston whaler. you could probably help me out with that. the stock i have is a financial, which we really like to see the financials leading like they did today. this one i've had my eye on since they gave earnings last and it shares my initials, ticker ms morgan stanley. >> you know i like ms. morgan stanley's big charitable trust name, i was saying, why aren't we bigger morgan stanley,

we should be buying more. ann in california? >> caller: boo-yah, jim. is it time to take a little exxon off the top? >> i've got to tell you, there's going to be a continuing run in exxon now that warren buffett took a $40 million share straight. you're going to hear nothing but how great exxon is because you have a big buyback and warren buffett likes it. wait three days and then sell sell sell. hope in new york? >> caller: hey, how are you? >> all right, how are you? >> caller: good, thank you. what do you think about phnd after tanking on earnings and bouncing back big? buy or sell? >> i have had such bad luck with the laser stories. the laser health stories. i'm going to stay away from this one. it's too difficult for me. i've made too many mistakes in that particular patch of medicine and lasers. francis in michigan. >> caller: boo-yah! thanks for taking my call.

from the great city of pataski in northern michigan, i want to know what you think of gentex corporation. they do a lot with johnson controls. >> huge, huge winner for my charitable trust.. i have liked gentex for some time. they do the mirrors in cars. i love the auto parts story. i think it will get better and better. now i need to go to ed in florida. ed? >> caller: a big boynton beach boo-yah, jim. >> i love boynton beach. wish i were there now. how can i help? >> caller: jim, first of all, i just want to thank you for everything you do for us little guys. >> everybody's little, all right? everybody. we're all little. thank you, though. >> caller: also, i just wanted to find out how you feel about lowe's. >> oh, geez, mr. blake, please, i know you watch the show at home depot, don't take this the wrong way. lowe's is catching up to you in terms of greatness, and that's

why my charitable trust sold home depot to buy lowe's. lowe's reports in a couple of weeks. i think it's going to be a good quarter. stay long lowe's. let's go to mark in ohio, please. mark? >> caller: hello, jim. i bought aeropostale for a turnaround today. >> it's interchangeable versus american eagle and abercrombie. i don't like that. i like companies that distinguish themselves like terry lundgren's macy's. that's what i buy. that's the conclusion of the fbi-crazed lightning round. >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td round is sponsored by td ameritrade. like, really big...

it's kind of like we have a big problem with the health care system that you aren't hearing about while everybody is focused on the latest problems with the obama care rollout. did you know we have a serious labor shortage in the health care industry, one that's only getting worse over time? and that means there's an enormous opportunity in the health care staffing business, which brings me to amn health care services. here is a $600 million company

that happens to be the largest health care staffing and physician services business out there. amn health care is a managed service provider. type of health care cost containment play where hospitals let them manage the business aspects of things so they can focus on delivering health care. plus, amn has their own proprietary software platform that allows them to cut costs and improve efficiency far better than any of the hospitals can. company reported a strong quarter two weeks ago. i think the speculative health care cost containment name could have a lot more upside. why hasn't the promise been realized yet, given the compelling nature of the investment and the demographic? let's talk to susan, the president and ceo of amn health care services, find out more about her company and where it's headed. welcome back to "mad money". >> thank you so much. >> have a seat. the president was on today, i'm sure you're focused on it. any of the near-term fallout from the problems, are they going to impact your company? >> short term there are both positives and some negatives

that affect our industry. on the positive side, we've certainly seen our clients and just health care organizations in general become much more focused on how they're going to manage their workforce going forward. that's caused them to want to partner with organizations such as us who can provide workforce solutions, things like msp, like you mentioned, recruitment process outsourcing. there's some cost constraints on the negative side. longer term we think it will be a net positive and provide a lot of opportunity for us to do some innovative and unique things with our clients. the great thing is they want it, they're hungry for it. >> why would they want temporary staff, which may actually short-term cost them more, when they could think long term and hire doctors at arguably a cheaper price than they can get from you? >> actually, if they're looking at their total workforce cost, it will be more ideal for them to staff at the core staffing level at a lower level. we actually hear many of our clients talking about taking their core staffing from maybe

90% or 80% down to 75% or 70%. so that they can flex up when needed, and the uncertainty that we have around health care reform actually drives that desire to be able to have more flexibility. it also gives them greater access to a workforce that they might not have available locally. we have a network of clinicians, doctors, nurses, allied professionals all across the country, so we can tap into labor skills that they might not necessarily have available locally. >> can you tell me, you've got a physician permanent placement business that is incredibly strong, big doctor shortage. you guys are an answer to that. would you ever think about just shifting the resources to the hottest areas? some of your businesses are not as strong as the doctor business. >> you're right. we have two kinds of physician businesses, our physician firm placement we're the largest in the nation in providing retain search and convict continue gentles for doctors. that business is doing extremely

well, was up 9% year over year in the third quarter. we don't expect that to slow down because the physician is still really at the center of patient care delivery, kind of like the quarterback. so we expect continued strong demand. but we also have our temporary staffing for physicians, and that's been in high demand as well. in fact, it was up 11% year over year, and with hospitals acquiring more physician practices, and realizing that they really need to be aligned with the doctors, we see it as a tremendous growth area. >> people don't think of doctors steady need, they think of hospital steady need. but the hospital census as you call it in your q&a remains weak. do you expect it to pick up in 2014 because of the affordable care act? >> you know, longer term, absolutely. and we hear from our clients that in fact we just did a survey of hospital ceos and over half said that they expect increased needs for physicians, advanced practice like nurse practitioners and p.a.s and nurses over the long term. so we think there will be increased demand. shorter term i think they're

more cautious about where census will go. that's okay. we can still be a valuable partner and help them really get control and manage their total work force cost. >> susan, one of the things i love about your business, the long-term demographics are great, but i'm trying to put it in context. when you came public, you were 25, then spiked to 36 in june of 2002, 29 in 2007. but the promise hasn't been realized versus the history. what's the longer term that didn't go right that can go right? >> we do get affected by economic contractions. as we hit the contraction in kind of the 2002, 2003 area, we saw the business contract, particularly the nursing business. and it's one of the reasons we've continued to diversify the business over time. when we originally began we were a nurse staffing company. today we provide all kinds of clinical disciplines, and really we've become more of a workforce solutions company in helping our clients to manage their total workforce costs as opposed to just being that temporary provider. >> right.

that's why i think it's such a better company now than when it started. terrific. thank you, susan. president and ceo of amn health care services. read the stuff. you'll see this is going to be a big star, i believe, in 2014. stay with cramer.

you've got to give it to john chambers, the longtime chairman and ceo of cisco. just when he convinced me that his company may deserve the benefit of the doubt, he comes out with horrendous guidance. caused my charitable trust to take a hit as i showed way too much faith in this man and his company. i believed in him, i was wrong. as much as chambers is to blame, it wasn't all his fault. if you listen to the cisco -- you should listen to it especially if you want to hear a combination late stage tom landry meets the waning hours of willie mays, consider these

hideous declines in cisco's business. brazil minus 25%, mexico minus 18%, india minus 18%, china minus 18%, russia minus 30%. this is nothing short of amazing. amazingly bad. of course chambers, who is stuck in the neverending wait until next year mode, says he expects to see return to growth within a few quarters. you can choose for yourself whether you believe it or not. i don't. not for a moment am i excusing chambers. you don't get that downturn without pushing the wrong product to the wrong people on the wrong days of the week with the wrong management in the wrong way. i threw the wrong way in there just so i could have five wrongs in the same sentence and we know that five wrongs sure don't make a right. oh, by the way, everyone is taking business from them. let's be clear about that. but i mentioned this huge emerging market declines because if there's one thing for certain, it's the united states is leading the developed world and maybe even the emerging markets world when it comes to growth. it's very telling that our country has somehow become the leader here. we have the most dysfunctional

government of any emerging market countries i just mentioned, more dysfunctional than mexico, india, china, russia, maybe the possibility exception of brazil. i'm not sure brazil is even worse governed. we have the worst relationship between business and government. believe me, i'm not talking about the president. i'm talking about republicans and democrats here. i'm not distinguishing. our corporate tax rate is higher than it is in any of these countries. the only metric where we're more pro business is in our unwillingness to punish individuals for their actions at the banks. instead, we punish the shareholders. sometimes i long for chinese style justice, they put them in front of a firing squad and they make them pay for the bullets. it does make me angry. talk about hitting the bankers where it hurts right in the wallet. here in america -- still the take-away is clear. the u.s. whether it be in retail, consumer package goods or technology is the clear winner right now in spite of our

government, republicans and democrats, shenanigans. keep that in mind when you see our stock market go up. the order books of cisco must be littered with cancellations and lost business to other players but now the legendary poorly run and poorly -- can still be a decent barometer of how weak business in the growth portion of the world's economy. the internet, social, mobile and cloud, it's bizarre, counterintuitive and more important it's not producing enough jobs. but the u.s. economy is on far firmer footing relative to the once fast growing emerging market part of the world. it's about time we started realizing it. before the stock market continued to advance simply by default as brazil, russia, india and china seemed to be falling apart brick by brick compared to the once house of straw that is the united states of america. stick with cramer. >> announcer: mad about "mad money?" immerse yourself into cramer's world while you watch the show with zeebox. on your phone, tablet or on the web, get sneak peeks, go behind the scenes, and join the conversation. download the free app today for

the ultimate cramerican adventure.

a high flying rock promoter is at the top of the charts, but will his investors be singing the blues? watch rock dreams turn into

nightmares tonight on american greed. you know i will be, and i got to meet the legendary great voice of american greed stacy keach today. he is fabulous and does a great job. i'm jim cramer, and i will see you tomorrow. selling an opportunity for financial security. >> you can buy gold. we put in in a storage vault. it's safe. then, when you want to sell it, we sell it. >> narrator: could this be a golden parachute in a falling economy? >> it left me with nothing. i have no money. >> narrator: ferreira admits he's a con. but rather than face prison, he disappears. >> he was missing. nobody knew where he was. >> narrator: but first, a chicago executive leads the life of a king. >> he would call downstairs and tell them, "bring all of side one and side two of the menu," and tuxedo butlers would come up