We're Deep in the Hole and Need Some Help

Worst close. A no-hope close. I don't want to make up hope where there isn't. We need, in the week, a way out for AIG (AIG - commentary - Cramer's Take), a big rate cut, another merger like Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take)-Merrill (MER - commentary - Cramer's Take) to take out another player, and the Fed providing enough liquidity to avoid a crash.

I don't like to talk about crashes. But without some of the tangible things I just mentioned, we can't expect to get out of this period with this little damage. I have hit this AIG/Lehman thing over and over again, and frankly, what I missed was that the CEOs would do the wrong thing repeatedly.

I did not bank on hubris and rank incompetence. I got that wrong, and it made me too bullish.

As it is, I reiterate that these travesties will not cause Procter & Gamble (PG - commentary - Cramer's Take) to go down big, or PepsiCo (PEP - commentary - Cramer's Take) or any of the companies that sell staples that use oil and gas, both of which aren't done going down.

But the potential for the chain reaction that now takes down solvent, well-run institutions is upon us, and the chain reaction has to be stopped.

Last week I talked about a Great Depression II, if we aren't careful.

Without relief for AIG and without a plan for the remaining problem financials that I have discussed ad nauseum, we will not be able to contain these problems to only problematic institutions. We will turn well-run institutions into savaged ones.

That has to stop soon, or it will happen, and we will slice right through the BKX 46 and HGX 93 which we reached, intraday, on July 15.

Darn, I hope that's not the Maginot Line, and I am aware that hope should not be part of the equation.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble.

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