RealMoney Radio: Alive and Kicking

As the economy is primarily consumer driven, the change in interest rates and the rise of gas prices caused analysts to proclaim the consumer dead, Jim Cramer said on his "RealMoney" radio show Wednesday.

However, the consumer is very much alive and purchasing hand over fist, he said.

Even though we are in the summer months, there are many retailers, such as Federated Department Stores (FD Quote - Cramer on FD - Stock Picks), TJX (TJX Quote - Cramer on TJX - Stock Picks), J.C. Penney (JCP Quote - Cramer on JCP - Stock Picks), Home Depot (HD Quote - Cramer on HD - Stock Picks) and Best Buy (BBY Quote - Cramer on BBY - Stock Picks) that are doing well, Cramer said.

"Employment has always been the driver of consumer spending," and employment has the most direct ties to retail, he said. Because employment is strong in the U.S. and there are a lot of jobs, people feel comfortable about spending some money.

Therefore, don't get caught up with what the media is saying because most of the press doesn't know what moves stocks and doesn't do homework, Cramer said.

"There is a legion of lunacy on Wall Street," he said.

As oil has been dropping the last few days and natural gas is under some pressure, market players are abandoning anything that has to do with oil, natural gas or drilling, he said. Cramer called the decline in these stocks "stupid."

"People don't realize that oils and oil drillers are going to make fortunes," he said.

It doesn't matter that oil and natural gas are going down because the world's oil problems have not all of a sudden been resolved, Cramer said. Nor has the U.S. found an oil reserve larger than the one in the Middle East or an alternative source of energy that everyone has agreed to use, he added.

He advised taking a look at oil driller Ensco International (ESV Quote - Cramer on ESV - Stock Picks).

The company's site posts the day rates of borrowing rigs to drill oil. These rates are going higher and higher, even though people keep saying they are falling, Cramer said.

Because oil and drillers are geared only to the day rates, Cramer believes that eventually oil and drilling stocks are going up as well.

Cramer said that the current mood of the market is that we're going into a recession. Although defensive stocks will work for another three months, Cramer said he's laying the groundwork for oil because the switch will happen.

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