The Fundamentals Are Unsound

They told us the fundamentals were sound. They told us all was good. They told us that those who were saying "There are real problems in the system" were just there to bail out the hedge funds.

What are they going to tell us now?

It's happening. What I have been looking for is happening. There simply is no strength in this U.S. economy, and the retail numbers we saw Thursday were entirely about a change in calendar and sales.

Remember what I said the other day, though: If we get a weak jobs number, you will see panic among those who thought the fundamentals were sound.

They were never sound. They haven't been sound since Bear Stearns' (BSC - commentary - Cramer's Take) funds collapsed. They haven't been sound since the housing market just collapsed, and now few buyers have enough money for a down payment.

Those who believed that the fundamentals were sound will now have to sell. You have to buy from them. That's the way it goes. The domestic economy is just awful, and has been for months.

Oh, and now we recognize, well, OK, why the #$%&* I melted down. It is here. (And now I've got to hear all day from all the people who laughed at me then that the cut is a slam-dunk. They too know nothing!)

The fundamentals?

They are unsound. The Fed will come to the rescue only fast enough, ironically, to save the rich!

P.S. "The bonds didn't know nothin'." The bonds were right!

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this post.

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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder 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. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order his book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

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