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NEW YORK (
TheStreet) -- Has the market lost its mind? That's what Jim Cramer asked his live audience outside the
New York Stock Exchange as he celebrated the 2,000th episode of
"Mad Money." Cramer said that after fretting for weeks over the possibility of a government shutdown, the day that shutdown actually arrived the market did nothing but yawn. But that's how Wall Street works, Cramer explained -- it will now begin to be worried about the next big, bad event as the debt ceiling debate comes to a head Oct. 17.
Cramer reminded viewers that despite all of the attention paid to Washington, politics is only one piece in the stock puzzle. He warned against letting that one piece blind them to opportunities that still exist in the markets.
After all, that's what makes for better investors, seeing the real value of a stock as compared to its current value. What a stock is worth is rarely what you'll actually pay for it, he continued, which is what "Mad Money" has been all about since March 2005.
"There's always a bull market somewhere," Cramer reminded his audience, and he's happy to help find them night after night.
Executive Decision: Duncan Niederauer
In the "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer spoke with Duncan Niederauer, CEO of
NYSE Euronext (
NYX), about the markets, technology and the government shutdown.
Niederauer said every day is a struggle to both provide better, faster access to the markets while also keeping things running smoothly and retaining investor confidence. In retrospect, he said maybe the markets should've declared victory when the moved from fractions to decimals many years back, as everything that's occurred since then has only added complexity to the markets.
Niederauer said the markets need to be accessible to everyone, and scandals like the
Facebook (
FB) initial public offering and the "flash crash" only create missed opportunities to rebuild investor confidence.
When asked about the abundance of technology on the exchanges, Niederauer said that trading has always been a high-tech and high-touch business, and at the NYSE there will always be humans at the ready to take over if the technology runs into problems.
Finally, when asked about how the government shutdown and lack of an effective Securities and Exchange Commission will affect the IPO market, Niederauer said that in the short term, there will be no effect. However, he said it's sad that at a time when companies are flush with cash and are innovating with new technology, the government is getting in the way rather than getting out of the way and letting America do what it does best.
Looking Back
The situation has changed dramatically since "Mad Money's" 1,000th episode on April 9, 2009, Cramer told viewers. Back then, Cramer told investors to stay the course, not knowing the generational low was just 30 days away. Since then, the
S&P 500 has more than doubled, he said, making his advice quite timely.
Cramer said his advice today remains the same: stay the course, because while the markets still have hurdles to surmount, things are markedly better than they were in 2009. Back then, the banks were struggling, Europe and China were faltering and companies everywhere were bloated with estimates that were far too high.
But today the financial crisis is long behind us, and the financial system is no longer in peril. There's simply no time to get out and back in like there was in 2008 and 2009, Cramer said, which is why "stay the course" remains the right move.
Sure, you may not be able to pick up shares of
Chipotle Mexican Grill (
CMG) at $72 as you could in 2009, but at $426 a share, they still represent great value. Stocks always bounce back, Cramer concluded, and they will again with this government shutdown and debt debacle.
Lightning Round
In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on
Panera Bread (
PNRA),
Computer Sciences (
CSC),
Fifth & Pacific (
FNP),
SPDR Gold Shares (
GLD),
Royal Bank of Scotland (
RBS),
Ford Motor (
F),
Google (
GOOG),
Amazon.com (
AMZN) and
Vodafone Group (
VOD).
Cramer was bearish on
Frontier Communications (
FTR),
American Homes 4 Rent (
AMH) and
Gap (
GPS).
The Next Big Ideas
Investors looking for the next big investment ideas should look no further than the
Russell 2000 small-cap index, Cramer told viewers. They'll find that over half of this year's biggest movers are biotechs, stocks that Cramer has championed for many years.
He said that biotechs are the quintessential anti-Washington stocks because they can prosper whether the government is open or closed.
Among the names that caught Cramer's attention were
Acadia Pharmaceuticals (
ACAD),
Celldex Threapeutics (
CLDX),
Insys Threapeutics (
INSY),
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (
KERX),
Clovis Oncology (
CLVS),
Isis Pharmaceuticals (
ISIS) and
NPS Pharmaceuticals (
NPSP).
Cramer said all of these names are smaller, more speculative investments, but all have the potential to become the next
Celgene (
CELG) or
Gilead Sciences (
GILD) and can make investors just as much money, even though they're already up huge for the year.
No Huddle Offense
In his "No Huddle Offense" segment, Cramer recalled the time when the Republican party was the "good for business" party and not the "anti-everything party." He said that over time the Republicans have fractured into two parties, one that focuses only on small business and another that's simply out to get the President.
It's amazing to think that the party once thought to care only about the rich would now consider devaluing America's most prized investment, the Treasury bond, by letting it default. Cramer called it a tragic situation, and one he hopes never comes to bear.
To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page on CNBC.
To sign up for Jim Cramer's free Booyah! newsletter with all of his latest articles and videos please click here. -- Written by Scott Rutt in Washington, D.C. To email Scott about this article, click here:
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