Goldman Will Emerge Even More Dominant

Earnings power. That's what you should be thinking about with Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Cramer's Take). Earnings power.

This company should have lost a lot of money this quarter. Boatloads. It is entirely and utterly unbelievable that in this, the worst environment since the Great Depression, Goldman Sachs did not lose billions. Billions, you read that right.

I thought it would lose at least a dollar a share. I was taken aback by the performance and by the candid analysis of what was said about the future.

Now, here's what I think the future really holds: Morgan Stanley (MS - commentary - Cramer's Take), JP Morgan (JPM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Goldman will be vying for worldwide institutional brokerage, M&A and bond issuance. Goldman and Morgan will have close to a hammerlock on lending to customers and prime brokerage.

The idea that the world will never come back to transactions is ludicrous. The idea that Goldman's book value of $100 is overstated is nonsense. The idea that Goldman is short of capital and needs to buy, say Wachovia (WB - commentary - Cramer's Take), was not demonstrated here at all.

The issue that Goldman's management isn't the best in the industry is ridiculous. If Goldman can make $10 next year I would buy it right here and that should be low.

I say, again, if AIG is going to survive, then you want to buy Goldman here. If it doesn't, you can buy it back at $100,

Either way, this company next year at this time will be worth a lot more than it is. It might be the only investment bank anyone trusts to deal with.

How is that not a buy? How can that not expand margins? How did that get to be a bad stock?

Beats me.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long GS and MS.

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