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![]() When the president talks about the government becoming a shareholder of the banks that it bails out, of course you are going to get a bad selloff. Nobody who owns the good banks -- or any banks -- wants to own a bank when that talk happens, even as I believe Obama didn't mean it. Let's say you own Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take), two situations considered to be "dicey" by many -- do you want to own a bank where the government's going to take over, especially when that wasn't on the table before the president's address? Is Bank of America suddenly the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS - commentary - Cramer's Take)? Do we have to short the banks again because of this coming government cram-down? Which begs the real question: Why address the issue at all? Why bother to keep talking about it? We are in stress-test hell and the president should simply defer comment rather than cause the banks to go down and make it more likely that we will have to spend more money to bail them out. Haven't we been there already? The market's fragile even after six weeks up. The market's worried about the banks. Getting them off the radar screen may be the best thing that can happen to the averages. Someone has to tell the president that it's not worth "going there" or else we will have many more needlessly down days to go along with the down days that we deserve. Random musings: I am still trying to figure out how the old-fashioned "scholars" of the market can argue that buying and holding index funds has "worked." Why doesn't anyone else besides me challenge this alleged bit of "wisdom"? At the time of publication, Cramer was long Wells Fargo.
Know What You Own: Major financial stocks include JPMorgan Chase (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take), Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take), US Bancorp (USB - commentary - Cramer's Take), Deutsche Bank (DB - commentary - Cramer's Take), Morgan Stanley (MS - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take). For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.
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. Brokerage Partners
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