Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Looking on the Bright Side

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This market spends too much time worrying about what could go wrong and not enough time reflecting on what didn't go wrong, Jim Cramer told his "Mad Money" TV show viewers Wednesday after a see-saw day on Wall Street.

Cramer said the market has been brimming with worries this year, but surprisingly, none of them came true.

Cramer said today's announcement that General Motors (GM) is buying $5.5 billion worth of its shares from the U.S. Treasury is one such example. He said just a few years ago everyone was worried GM would be out of business and sending one million workers home. But today, the company managed to find $5.5 billion to repay a large chunk of its bailout, albeit at a loss for taxpayers, and make itself whole again.

The markets tend to ignore the fact that the U.S. is producing more oil than it has in 17 years, noted Cramer, paving the way for continental energy independence and hopefully eventually, U.S. energy independence. The markets also gloss over the fact that corporate balance sheets are flush with cash and the U.S. consumer is spending again.

We entered 2012 worried about Europe, Cramer reminded viewers, but the European "kick the can" strategy is working, giving those countries time to work out their problems. Meanwhile China, another big market worry, is also on the road to recovery.

Whether it was "shadow inventory" in the housing market or expected corporate bankruptcies, a whole host of potential worries never materialized, said Cramer, leaving us with at least a glimmer of hope that a fiscal cliff induced market collapse probably won't either.

An Underperformer

Over the past year, Cramer's focused a lot on companies that are breaking themselves up in order to unlock value. In fact, he's featured 13 such stories, from Kraft Foods (KFT) to Covidian (COV) to McGraw-Hill (MHP).

Out of those 13 there's only been one that's underperformed the markets -- Hillshire Brands (HSH).

Cramer said Hillshire shares have fallen 1% since its spinoff from Sara Lee (SLE), during a time when the markets have risen 3%. He said the story at Hillshire is not a bad one, but clearly the company will require more time to execute its turnaround than he initially anticipated.

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