Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Gone Bottom-Fishin'

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The current situation looks a lot like 1990 did at the bottom of one of the worst recessions the market has ever seen, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Wednesday.

Cramer urged investors to take a page out of the playbook he used then, and look for stocks to buy.

In 1990, Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia bought a major stake in Citigroup C, a stock Cramer owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, to make it solvent, he said. This time Abu Dhabi is buying a small stake in the bank.

In a similar vein, the Fed finds itself in the same situation it was in then, when it realized it had to get involved and ease rates. Moreover, as the financials collapsed over a six-month period in 1990, the Dow declined 11% and bottomed, Cramer said. Right now the index is down by more than 10%.

During 1990, colossal banks merged, Cramer said. Today, market players learned Bank of America BAC is talking about getting together with Citigroup.

All of these signs mean the financials are beginning to bottom now, Cramer said.

"We've been operating on the 1990s playbook for months in Cramerica and we cannot ignore it now," he said. Not everything bottomed in 1990 and not everything will bottom now, but people must get more positive and look for things to buy, Cramer said.