The Deal: Bailouts If You Slash Dividends

Give up your common stock yield, get the money? That's a major takeaway from the Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take) scenario.

If JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take) want the money, they have to slash that dividend. In many cases it will be worth it, because it means you do not need to sell debt, as it is all backstopped, and it means that your common stock is not kyboshed - that is major.

I think that BAC and WFC and JPM are so confident that they don't have to worry about that that they won't take the money. But they do have lots of crummy assets that they need to put in a bad bank that is controlled by the feds and give the feds a stake in doing so.

Speaking of lacking in confidence, I would bet that the big insurers accept this bargain so they can make good on the annuities like Hartford (HIG - commentary - Cramer's Take), Prudential (PRU - commentary - Cramer's Take) and MetLife (MET - commentary - Cramer's Take).

I don't think it is too much to ask, as the dividends are no longer trusted anyway. One thing we have a right to be outraged about, though: It shouldn't just be dividends that we should be canceling, we should also be canceling the board and getting some government representation on it. Why not?

Random musings: Lost in the shuffle is the fabulous pickup that US Bancorp (USB - commentary - Cramer's Take) got from the FDIC today. That Downey (DSL - commentary - Cramer's Take) franchise is fabulous. ... Here's what I don't get: Where are the hedge-fund sellers of the oils today? Where did they go? They have so much more to sell, and this is when you can sell. But they only seem to sell in a down market. ... Don't forget the ProShares Ultra funds, which magnify the final portion of the day...

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan Chase.

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