This market's like the Nasdaq in 2000 except the companies being sold off are great companies with huge cash flow and honest managements and great earnings. But there's nobody around to take advantage of the declines.

For all of the capital raised and the locked-up funds in hedge funds, for all of the trillions on the sidelines there is just nothing to buy. It is like the whole world's been caught out of position, much of it because the marginal buyer of just about every commodity -- China -- has disappeared and the marginal owners of most of the stocks that go down are margined and their investors are disappearing.

I keep thinking, well, where is Fidelity? Aren't there any buyers at T.Rowe? Trust Company? Capital? What happened to all of the money? Does no one have another dime?

It sure as heck looks so.

Everyone, from the mutual fund managers, to the strategic Europeans and the monster big Chinese, has just taken a powder.

And, incredibly, the declines are so swift that I believe even the biggest pools of capital are frightened. Of course, it doesn't help when Bill Gross, the best bond guy, says, "No more buying until Hank Paulson recognizes that we need an additional $500 billion in capital to get things moving" -- and, by the way, that seems right given that I expect about 25% of the mortgages taken between 2005 and 2007 to default, more than 3 million homes.

Why should Gross keep buying when a better moment could occur (although the Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) deal he passed on, a 9.75% preferred, sure looks dandy and went to a premium)? Gross is right though, with Paulson not helping, just talking -- where's that Barron's plan? -- and with the Europeans being as deer-in-the-headlights as the Fed was 13 months ago, who the heck should buy bonds?

Still, I come back to a simple precept: There are tons of companies with great balance sheets and unimpaired earnings power that are declining as if they are small-caps with a couple of big sellers liquidating. The hedge funds are larger than the stocks they are trying to get out of, and there's no mercy from the brokers, who would just as soon let the hedge funds drown then throw them a bid themselves on merchandise that they will be inundated the moment that things unravel.

Sure, we could bring back the uptick rule and the naked short ban, and I think, once again, it would slow the process down and give buyers a chance to buy. But the SEC is as mind-bogglingly absent as Treasury, so more pain has to be expected.

What a moribund time. It's just wiping out years of the market's goodwill, and it's leaving the public thinking, "Never mind!"

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RELATED LINKS:
China Watch: Stocks Set to Double -- or More
Kass: I'm Sprouting Bull Horns
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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Altria.