Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: It's Time to Buy

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"The market has gotten way too negative," Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Tuesday.

"The market took down a lot of good stocks that don't have anything to do with the economy, consumer spending or Fed chairman Ben Bernanke," he said. "Pull the trigger and just buy something."

Cramer still sees bull markets in agriculture, defense, mining and minerals, oil and natural gas and healthcare cost containment stocks. He reiterated his buys on natural gas driller Chesapeake Energy (CHK Quote) and Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM Quote) in the gold sector.

He also defended his call on fertilizer giant Potash (POT Quote), saying, "Anyone who thinks agriculture stocks are not going up is just stupid."

Cramer also identified several recession-proof stocks with big dividends as a safe place to invest, including BP(BP Quote) and AT&T(T Quote), along with Altria(MO Quote) and Verizon (VZ Quote), both of which he owns for his charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS.

One area Cramer recommended staying far away from is bank stocks. He warned that many banks still need to raise capital, and that puts their stocks and dividends at risk. He was especially leery of Citigroup (C Quote), Freddie Mac (FRE Quote) and Fannie Mae (FNM Quote).

"Now is the time to buy," said Cramer, "because everyone seems petrified." He sees tremendous short-selling and put-buying in the market, saying that usually signals a bottom is near.

"Anything positive in the market will have a huge impact," he said.

Defending the Merger

Cramer once again voiced his outrage at efforts in Congress to block the merger of Sirius Satellite (SIRI Quote) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR Quote).

He dismissed the argument that a combined Sirius-XM would raise pricing and noted the company's plans to offer a la carte pricing for as little as $6.99 per month. "Consumers will have lower prices with the combined company," he explained.

Cramer also debunked the notion that the Sirius-XM merger is similar to the blocked merger attempt between DirecTV (DTV Quote) and Echostar (SATS Quote).

"TV is not the same as radio," he said. Unlike the world of TV where satellite TV often competes with only a single cable operator, there will always be terrestrial radio to compete with satellite radio, he said.

Finally, Cramer took issue with the notion that XM and Sirius can survive just fine without the merger. He said he's worried about XM's balance sheet and noted that consumers will get a monopoly anyway if XM goes under.

He urged viewers to contact their members of Congress and demand that the merger get done.

Western Union's Rising Star

Cramer called Moneygram (MGI Quote) "one of the worst companies I've ever seen."

He told viewers that when a company is in turmoil, investors should be running to its closest competitor. In this case, Cramer suggested that Western Union (WU Quote) is now poised to aggressively take share from the ailing Moneygram.

According to Cramer, Moneygram's recently announced recapitalization plan is horrible for the company and its shareholders. That leaves Western Union with attractive opportunities as Moneygram restructures.

Even before its recent collapse, Western Union was already three times larger than Moneygram. Cramer says Western Union is in great financial shape and noted that "the outlook for wire transfers is bright, regardless of which political party takes control of the White House in November."

Western Union recently beat earnings estimates by a penny a share and gave good guidance for the rest of 2008. The company trades at just 17 times its current earnings, but trades at just over 12 times its long-term growth rate.