Of Course Gold Is Rising

You see the price of gold go higher and you know that nobody trusts this market or the governments or the currencies or the other commodities to increase. In fact, gold's going up because of inflation fears and chaos.

Those are two dominant themes that will only increase over the next few months as governments increase their paper as a way to bolster jobs. You hear endlessly that they are reinflating the bubble and that it's incredibly dangerous to do so. Plus, there is endless chatter that it is wasteful and that taxpayer will not be protected.

Ultimately all of this is about one thing -- going back to a regime where the market takes care of itself, even though, as Caterpillar (CAT - commentary - Cramer's Take) says this morning, "the U.S. economy probably declines at the fastest rate in more than 25 years."

To which I say, OK, what's the alternative? I will give it to you:

1. No major bank would be alive today -- none, not JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take), Wells (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take), Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take), PNC Financial (PNC - commentary - Cramer's Take), Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Morgan Stanley (MS - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- if they didn't do this kind of thing. The runs on the banks, the credit default swaps, the put-buying, the shorting, the lack of credit, the lack of trust, would have already wiped everyone out.
2. Unemployment would already be at 10% from all the layoffs, which would then wipe out whatever little or medium or non-troubled banks there would be. Already most major retailers (save Wal-Mart (WMT - commentary - Cramer's Take)) and all of the car companies in the U.S. and their supplies -- GM (GM - commentary - Cramer's Take), Ford (F - commentary - Cramer's Take), Visteon (VC - commentary - Cramer's Take), Chrysler, Lear (LEA - commentary - Cramer's Take), Johnson Controls (JCI - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- they would have all gone under.
3. We would have a total collapse of retail with major chains and almost all of the malls filing for bankruptcy, and many major office towers doing the same. All of those wonderful REITs people trade would almost all be under.

Those are some of the things that would have occurred by now if the "realists" -- the ones who favor "the market" -- took control of things. Believe me, if that occurred, you would be more worried about riots than you would be stocks.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman 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. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.