Tally Ho! Hunt for Bargains Is On

Bargains. With the market down 10%, you get them. I know that no one believes that. I am hearing people come on TV and say, "Not yet." But when you get these broad declines you have to sit up and take notice.

Remember that the chief problem in the system is credit. But it's just the U.S. system that has a credit problem. While there is some debt over in Europe that we exported, for the most part there's lots of excess capital over there.

We also know that there is 50% more capital than there was in relation to the U.S. courtesy of the euro's increase against the greenback. The Middle East is so rich with our dollars that it is natural for them to swoop in a la AMD (AMD - commentary - Cramer's Take) and now Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take). Russia's flush. Brazil is flush. Most of all, China has a ton of money. At this point it would not surprise me if people began to look the other way if the Chinese were interested in our institutions. I mean, after all, we bought big chunks of theirs.

It's not easy to guess what these flush parties would buy. It is easy to guess what you should buy: companies with solid, consistent earnings whose stocks have been pushed down along with everything else even though their businesses have not lost value.

That would be everything from retailers with good fundamentals to service companies that are well off because, simply, they are U.S. stocks -- particularly companies that have been buying back stock with no impact whatsoever.

Don't forget, also, these folks abroad love U.S. financial stocks. Does anyone believe that JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take) wouldn't want to sell a big stake to someone? Legg Mason's (LM - commentary - Cramer's Take) Citigroup stake is for sale. How about that piece of business?

How about a big Internet company, such as Time Warner's (TWX - commentary - Cramer's Take) AOL?

There are so many companies that make sense to be bought down here if you are a foreigner, because marquee names mean something to these countries even though we don't even think about it anymore. U.S. Steel (X - commentary - Cramer's Take), Alcoa (AA - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Motorola (MOT - commentary - Cramer's Take) are all brands that are down on their luck right now.

Now, I never like stocks on a takeover basis when the fundamentals are deteriorating. But when you consider that AMD and Citigroup just got bids, and you could argue that Genlyte (GLYT - commentary - Cramer's Take) could be facing deteriorating fundamentals, we have to realize that these foreign companies are much less concerned with the near term than we are.

Simple facts. Something that says the emphasis must be equally on bargain hunting and loss avoidance.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Citigroup.

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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order his book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

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