TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that rather than selling and moving into cash, consider these reasons to hold firm.
Look, the deficit numbers are awful. They are totally daunting. We have to hope they don't come true because they are way too big to cope with no matter what we do with taxes. The dollar will get killed. Our kids will be stuck with some horrifying bills. The disaster that Matt Horween outlined in his multi-part op-ed series a couple of weeks ago will happen.
So, why don't I say you should go into cash because of it? Couple of reasons: First, I have to have some faith that the government will grow up, that they will get serious about spending, that President Obama will get serious about spending. Second, I hope we have much more growth than people realize and therefore we can grow our way out of this jam.
Third, and most important, this is NOT bad news right now. We have a jobless recovery; these numbers mean there will be jobs. A deficit is not bad for the economy right now, or in the near future. I wouldn't mind seeing the dollar lower as it isn't as competitive as it should be.
To listen to the doomsayers is to believe the Weimar scenario is upon us no matter what. But we are so far from inflation right now -- in fact we are still in the deflationary spiral -- that I want some time to see if this isn't the worst-case scenario.
To sell the market because of this is somewhat akin to selling because eventually we could have a war with Pakistan. It could happen, but I don't think so.
I have been studying Weimar a lot lately. It was not just the reparations that caused the market to collapse. It was the economy itself. The economy just fell off a cliff in Germany because of the destructive work of the Allies post-war. That's what led to the radical inflation that so many think can happen here when they read these numbers.
You have to take that off the table. The combination of horrors that happened in Germany after World War I, plus the reparations, truly made things beyond repair until the central bank broke the spiral by just crushing all values.
Try as the bears may, I just don't think that's likely.
So, rather than sell, sell, sell, I want to see what happens. But these numbers remind people that stocks are going to be more fragile, not less, going forward because we will have to raise taxes and cut spending, no matter who is president and who is in Congress.
Worried?
Yes.
Panicked?
No.
Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman 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 the stocks mentioned.










