So buying troubled assets was always wrong. I got it. All of that wrangling about what to do with the $750 billion was all seat-of-the-pants nonsense. There was no plan.
But what we've been doing, just letting the U.S. own everybody and everything - like the British plan -- is working so why not run with it?
I liked the idea of the Treasury buying troubled assets because I wanted to solve the mortgage crisis. From the looks of things, we were in such bad shape post-Lehman that we couldn't even waste the time doing that. We needed to solve a situation that was about a banking shutdown and the Troubled Asset Relief Program did that. That's why the rally. And that's why the rally continues because TARP has saved the system. The rally will keep rolling until it is clear that the system was saved and everyone from CIT (NYSE: CIT) (Cramer's Take) to Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) is alive and able to do lending. It is basically making the Treasury the biggest bank on earth and if it is working I am not arguing with it.
Will it stop a bear market in its tracks? It sure has for now. It has enabled money to be less fearful and to come out and play in equities. It has ended the paralysis. It alone has been responsible for the stabilizing of the hedge funds and therefore the end of redemptions until we got to a seasonally strong period.
It's funny, everything they deliberately set out to do failed. Every little delicate, dainty thing failed because they were afraid to intervene.
This program isn't about intervention. It's about taking over the banking system and basically saving and prodding and really in a way, running it -- except for letting them get paid fortunes.
And it's working.
We should shut up and enjoy the ride.
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 had no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-04-2008 @ 1:46PM
beachpaul said...
Shut up? Was this all just another con job, like Iraq, to loot the federal treasury? The only lesson I am learning is this: there is way to much money out there with no where to go. The market is an electronic salmon run.
1-02-2009 @ 9:07PM
Jimbo said...
Shut up? This isn't our government taking over, it is a takeover of the government by the federal reserve. The Republic is officially dead. Long live the Fed.