Several weeks ago, Cramer put together a checklist of what needs to happen before investors can breathe a sigh of relief. On Tuesday, the "Mad Money" host revisited that list to see how we're doing. To his dismay, it seems things aren't going so great.

First, Cramer had said leaders need to come back from vacation with a plan that would fix the ailing U.S. and European economies. U.S President Barack Obama will deliver his plan Thursday evening, but Cramer criticized European policymakers for lacking a plan of their own.

Second, Cramer wanted to see U.S. bank stocks turnaround. Things started to look up when famed investor Warren Buffett struck a sizable deal with Bank of America two weeks ago. Bank stocks fell, however, when 17 financial institutions were sued for allegedly issuing fraudulent home loans.

Cramer was hoping to see the end of negative seasonality in the technology space. Low-flying optical names, like Ciena , Finisar and JDS Uniphase , have seemed to bottom out. Investors might want to be patient and wait a few weeks, though, which is where tech has historically bottomed.

We also want more mergers and acquisitions, Cramer said. The only notable story has been International Paper's higher bid for Temple-Inland.

What about lower stock and gold prices? Cramer doesn't actually think the market is down that much and that's what helped the last time stocks bounced. As far as gold goes, he wants to see a few more days in decline before getting bullish. Still, gold is a buy, not a sell, because multiple countries are trying to debase their currency.

Cramer was also looking for European banks to raise more equity, but that hasn't happened. Oilprices have come down, but not Brent , which is what U.S. and European gasoline prices are based off of. To Cramer, that's outrageous.

"As long as Brent crude hangs out at $27 higher than West Texas Intermediate , we are not going to get the consumer feeling better with some spare change to spend," he argued.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government hasn't been able to curb inflation. In Europe, there continues to be a myriad of problems with the euro .

Finally, Cramer said we need to see more new highs. There have been a few lately, but they only included recession-proof companies, like McDonald's and Bristol-Myers Squibb .

So what's the bottom line? A lot of things need to change before we see a sustainable bounce, Cramer said. He recommends investors stay defensive and stick with high-yielding stocks.

When this story was published, Cramer's charitable trust owned Bank of America.

Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

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