The things you learn about cable news hosts. CNBC's Jim Cramer is profiled in The Guardian today. Cramer talks about his Bear Stearns stunner, his ire for Ben Bernanke, and his own Stalin-like behavior when he ran his hedge fund. And there's this:

That chip on his shoulder may have been to do with a turbulent early career. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Florida and California before suffering a series of catastrophic mishaps in which his home was burgled and his bank account was emptied. In his autobiography, Cramer recounts being homeless for nine months and sleeping in a car in California with a gun for protection.

"I've been given a great thing which is an hour of national TV that I can use to affect people and make them interested in the market. I'm a kind of a televangelist for money," Cramer says.