Forget the Small Banks

Is it SunTrust (STI - commentary - Cramer's Take)? Maybe it is Key (KEY - commentary - Cramer's Take)? How about Regions (RF - commentary - Cramer's Take)? Maybe Huntington (HBAN - commentary - Cramer's Take)? Fifth Third (FITB - commentary - Cramer's Take)?

Oh, who cares? Frankly these are all small, nothing banks that you could short and probably do pretty well with, if you can borrow the shares. None of them is really important, and incredibly, all of them can easily be made delicious morsels for a JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take) or a U.S. Bancorp (USB - commentary - Cramer's Take) or a Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) without a lot of money spent by Treasury.

But in forbearance mode, that doesn't even have to happen. If all banks "have" to raise capital, but with an amorphous deadline, why not string 'em out? Who cares?

You should sell these banks, of course, but that's been the right path to take for months and still will be.

The issue is consequence. And I hate to tell the bears, but none of these banks is consequential. The whole process is being gamed perfectly by Geithner/Bernanke, and the result will be a muddle-through that I suspect won't make money in these banks for the longs or shorts, as much as my bias is to sell these.

Start focusing on national housing sales. Stop focusing on specific banks. And you will do better.

Random musings: I don't know how to play/not play this swine flu yet, or whether it should be played.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.

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