[PrivateInvestor]

Since Cramer provides a marketing quote that appears on the cover of Phil's book, that means he had to provide written permission to Crown Publishers (the publisher of Phil's book) to allow that to happen.

But I've seen marketing quotes from Cramer on the covers of a lot of financial books because like him or hate him, he is well known by the general public of Average Joe investors (i.e., his "endorsement" sells books). This "feud" may also be a marketing ploy by Cramer to maintain his name awareness with the public (the theory being that all publicity for a celebrity whether good or bad is ultimately good for that celebrity's rating and Cramer tends to prefer controversy to get attention).

Personally, I believe Phil brings value investing into the Internet age of the 21st century (which Phil admits to trying to do in his book). One can debate whether he got it perfectly right or not, but I believe Phil is walking his talk, so I'm confident his system as he describes it in his book works for him (which means I'm taking Rule #1 seriously as I study it and adapt it to my investing needs).

With regards to Cramer, I haven't read any of his books (although I believe Cramer knows his stuff and has decided to deliver his message using an "entertaining" rather than "educational" style). I also find myself going to TheStreet.com less and less as I understand Rule #1 more and more (on grounds the general financial media is often a waste of time and potentially misleading to the investing public).