Jim Cramer's Best Blogs

Jim Cramer fills his blog on RealMoney every day with his up-to-the-minute reactions to what's happening in the market and his legendary ahead-of-the-crowd ideas. This week, when he wasn't rolling out a special series on the Bear Stearns subprime-led mortgage crisis, he blogged on:

• Google's obscenely low valuation;
• the reasons to stick with Citigroup; and
• why you shouldn't make the obvious trade on Bear Stearns.

Click here for information on RealMoney.com, where you can see all the blogs, including Jim Cramer's -- and reader comments -- in real time.

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Google's Still Buyable

Originally published on June 26 at 10:30 a.m. EDT

What the heck is Google(GOOG Quote) doing selling at 1 times its growth rate?

What is a company that is successfully integrating Doubleclick to rout its ad enemies, a company that is now going up against a totally challenged Yahoo!(YHOO Quote), a company that has a division that is growing 7% organically per week (YouTube) and a company that has the best balance sheet in the world doing selling at 1 times growth?

I swear, if we just used the old rule of 10, where you divide the price of some high-dollar shares by 10 to make the valuation process less daunting, no one would think twice if this $53 stock went to $60.

I named the four horsemen of tech a month ago, RAGA -- Research In Motion(RIMM Quote), Amazon(AMZN Quote), Google and Apple(AAPL Quote) -- and each has astounding growth vs. its multiple, with the possible exception of Amazon, which is also a play on a ridiculously large short position.

I like all of these, although obviously Apple will be tricky to trade -- up, then down, then up -- after the iPhone's debut. But it is absurd that the cheapest of these stocks is the best and fastest-growing: Google!

It is breaking free of the earth's atmosphere right now, and it is becoming a great mark-up candidate for end of the quarter momentum funds.

It should be purchased now.

Random musings: Subprime alert -- the people determined to freak you out will work at it all week. Get immunized. Read the series!

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Yahoo!.

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It's Too Soon to Jump Ship From Citigroup

Originally published on June 28 at 12:06 p.m. EDT

Time to talk truth about Citigroup(C Quote). I can tell from the trading that people in general and speculators in particular have given up on this one.

That's beyond me. Here's a company where there are so many ways to win -- a new CEO, IPOing divisions, restructurings, dismantlings -- that I can't believe people would abandon ship now, here, particularly given the anger level of some of the newer holders.

My take is this: Abandoning Citi here instead of getting that dividend while you wait for the agitators to succeed at their mission just seems totally wrongheaded. There have been a series of reports doubting the authenticity and perspicacity of the potential agitators. These smack more of fantasy than of fact.

When I look at the vast panoply of securities out there, Fed cut or not this one's the cheapest and one of the few that could pick up 5 points with just a change from a very unpopular guy at the helm.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Citigroup.

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Why Not to Short Bear Stearns Here

Originally published on June 29 at 1:53 p.m. EDT

Short Bear Stearns.

There, I said it. If you believe that there is going to be a market collapse under the weight of this subprime debacle, you should go long Lehman(LEH Quote) and short Bear(BSC Quote). It's a decent trade. One for one. Straight up.

That's my one concession to the crisis that people insist is unfolding. By my count, Bear hasn't done the housecleaning and it is obvious that every time Bear does anything, Bear goes down.

Lehman goes down with it. Don't even get me started about Goldman(GS Quote), because I believe that stock has to go to an 8 multiple before it becomes painfully obvious that the stock should not be at an 8 multiple.

Let me give you three insights from my hedge fund days.

First, I would never have done the trade I just advocated. It's too easy. Obviously, Bear has problems. Plus, it's a $140 stock so you can push it down $4 or $5 pretty easily with a call to the media. (This kind of truth always gets me in trouble, mostly because everyone in the hedge fund community did it except for me -- but somehow I get "credit" for doing it!)

But, were I back at my old hedge fund now, I would be sorely tempted to do the trade. Because when I see the stocks going down like this, I figure I can count on a few things: terrible disclosures after the bell, including warehouse lines from someone to a company like American Home Mortgage(AHM Quote) that are being pulled; horrid press over the weekend; and a series of "Downfall of Bear" articles that are just too juicy for the fearmongering elements of the media not to write.

Second, this trade would be nice insurance. Bear's now in control of this market. If it stabilizes, the rest of the market rallies. If it fails to stabilize, you've got the epicenter shorted. Great hedge.

Finally, if this does turn into a real crisis (and you know I believe it won't), and the Fed just said nothing will happen, you have until about $120 before you need to cover.

Sweet.

I'm not encouraging the short. I'm just pointing out why someone would do it.

Why not encourage it? Because if I were Bear CEO Jimmy Cayne, after I got my new team in I would announce a $1.5 billion buyback -- why not? that's how much is left over from not having to do the big bailout -- and I would run it in the face of the shorts.

That's too juicy for Cayne, whom, candidly, I like very much. I hope he listens. I hope he does it.

Random musings: Speaking of my old hedge fund, I would be buying KB Homes(KBH Quote) and then telling my staff to find me a reason to own it. Because I hate it when stocks that should go down don't; it's a signal that something else is afoot. Now that there are "no longer" going to be private equity deals, per U.S. Foodservice (I have to be the only person who ever heard of the company anyway) and the Blackstone(BX Quote) bust/top, there's nothing to fear in knocking the market down on Fridays. ... Vernon Hill departs Commerce Bancorp(CBH Quote). I am sad about this because he built a great company. But in the end, you can never side with employees against the government, and that was Hill's sin. The government wants the institution to throw over the employees and Hill wouldn't. So he had to be thrown over, too.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Goldman Sachs.