Forbearance Accomplished

Put aside the notion that the Treasury's leaking of these stress test results is outrageous -- what matters is, as I have been saying for almost two months, the fix is in for this incredibly important group.

You are seeing what forbearance means. You are seeing what happens when the Feds decide to bend the rules and not put the banks out of business. You will see a level of pragmatism from Tim Geithner that makes me like him even as I despise the way the news is coming out.

I understand the initial leak: You put out the story that Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take) needs some outlandish number, a number that shows the test has strength, and that will most likely cause CEO Ken Lewis to lose his job.

Suddenly you've got everyone believing your test is no joke. Of course, that hideous number isn't much different from what BofA can convert and what it can sell in stock in a Chinese bank, making things OK.

We also got a "no" vote on Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take). More money is needed, but Warren Buffett can write a check for $15 billion even though it's a serious grade.

Because of those tough grades, we are willing to accept a couple of iffy "no new capital" leaks, including American Express (AXP - commentary - Cramer's Take), MetLife (MET - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Morgan Stanley (MS - commentary - Cramer's Take), all of which were on the bubble.

Now the remaining banks can literally be absorbed by anyone else without a problem. Regions Financial (RF - commentary - Cramer's Take) needs a little cash? Not an issue -- it can take the money Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take) is going to give back. SunTrust (STI - commentary - Cramer's Take) needs more? Or maybe Capital One (COF - commentary - Cramer's Take)? Not a problem.

The moment Geithner recognized that nationalization was wrong, the moment he realized that the 1989-1991 Resolution Trust method - forbearance -- was right, you didn't have to worry.

You just had to buy, which is what people are doing.

Random musings: The big bet against tech that has been going on all day is grounded in a belief that Cisco (CSCO - commentary - Cramer's Take) is going to disappoint. But I reiterate that given Cisco's strong April, I question how bad the quarter is going to be.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Goldman Sachs and Cisco.

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