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Could the US Lead the World out of Financial Morass?
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Producer
“We've got a huge disconnect between what people think is happening in this country and what's actually happening,” Cramer said Thursday. “I'm talking about the widespread misconception that our economy is in trouble, something that's causing many of you to sit on the sidelines and miss out on some tremendous gains.”
Take, for example, the “almost universal perception” that the U.S. economy is weak.
Recent comments by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke exacerbated those feelings when he said the central bank would keep interest rates low for a couple of years because things are so lousy. If it weren’t for Bernanke, though, Cramer thinks the U.S. economy would be “totally paralyzed” right now. But by keeping interest rates low, Cramer said Bernanke is essentially driving savers toward high-yielding stocks, like AT&T [T
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], Kinder Morgan Energy Partners [KMP
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] and Verizon [VZ
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].
Meanwhile, President Obama has said things are getting better while acknowledging things are still pretty bad. After all, aggregate employment numbers are still poor. So it makes sense Obama doesn’t highlight the positives too much, Cramer said, otherwise the unemployed would be upset that he talked about how things are good and getting better.
(RELATED: Cramer’s ‘Obama-Resistant’ Investment Strategies)
On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans would like to make you feel that there’s an Obama-inspired depression happening and the only way to cure it is by giving tax breaks to the rich.
“Now, I'm not going to get involved in the politics of the moment, but I can tell you this: the views of the Republicans, the Democrats, and even Ben Bernanke don't jive with what actual American companies are saying about the future,” Cramer said.
Machinery maker Caterpillar [CAT
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], for example, reports things are getting better in the U.S. It expects housing starts and construction in general to pick up, he noted.
Elsewhere in the market, railroad Union Pacific [UNP
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] saw its stock hit an all-time high because the auto industry is turning around, chemicals are booming and materials for infrastructure project need to be sent by rail across the country, he said.
The biggest success story, though, is the oil and gas business, Cramer commented. From oil and gas pipeline companies to truck drivers, the industry is starved for workers. In some cases, these jobs are not getting filled because they are located in places where few people live, such as the Bakken shale in western North Dakota. But to Cramer, that’s a good problem to have.
Even more jobs could be created, Cramer said, if natural gas was used as a transportation fuel. As President Obama pointed out in a recent address, roughly 600,000 people could be hired if diesel trucks were converted to run on liquefied natural gas.
“I know these strong data points have yet to produce the jobs we all want created. But I also know that it's just a matter of time,” Cramer said. “When I listen to all the calls this quarter, there is one fairly common theme: the United States is going to lead this world out of this global economic morass.
“That's right, the U.S. is going to make up for European inspired weakness-like a modern day Marshall Plan. Our economy is finally starting to pull its own weight.”
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