We're Just Entering This Morass

You can see it dawn on people one by one. We aren't coming out of this morass, we are just going into it. The president and Congress aren't serious about it. But more importantly, somehow, the companies are stunned by it.

If you want to read about what it is like to recognize that things are falling apart, go read the Textron (TXT - commentary - Cramer's Take) quarter. They actually thought there would be some improvement at year-end. That's not going to happen to a Cessna manufacturer with a commercial finance division of dubious worth. Perhaps there was some hyperbole, but Textron said it was the worst manufacturing time ever!

Black & Decker (BDK - commentary - Cramer's Take)was lean to begin with, but that conference call was one of acceptance of a multi-year downturn. So was the Caterpillar's (CAT - commentary - Cramer's Take) conference call, which was in contrast to pretty much everything they had hoped would happen.

Even Procter & Gamble (PG - commentary - Cramer's Take) got pretty much everything wrong. They had wrong prices, wrong materials costs and wrong demand profile for their goods. To be sure, Colgate (CL - commentary - Cramer's Take) whooped 'em. I wonder if even they could disagree with that.

It was just a nasty quarter.

So, we come in and see the futures down big and once again it is dawning on it. We are going lower, perhaps much lower, despite the vicious declines we have seen, even if something "good" happens to the banks, because the earnings estimates are too high and credit has not yet returned to make it so anyone would even think of buying another company.

Random musings: China remains the lone bright spot in the universe. We're asking them to do a lot, but they need to pull us out of here.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Black & Decker and Procter & Gamble.

---

Know What You Own: Cramer mentioned Textron. Related companies are 3M (MMM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Tyco International (TYC - commentary - Cramer's Take).

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.