• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Doug Kass
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Stocks

Jim Cramer: Thanks for Nothing, Washington

It's too late. By delaying the stimulus this long Congress has doomed lots of smaller businesses.
By JIM CRAMER Sep 29, 2020 | 10:50 AM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: COST, MAR, CMG, DRI, SBUX, AMZN, WMT, TGT, HD, LOW

Look, big business won. By delaying the stimulus this long Congress has handed you a buy list that can be beat.

It's funny and ironic that I was criticized on Twitter to stick to stocks and forget politics. I say you have to be kidding me. When people say the stock market doesn't reflect the real economy they are missing a salient point: By designating some companies as essential and others as non-essential the state governments doomed lots of smaller businesses. They ended up desperate for funds.

The federal government answered with the equivalent of lifeline, kind of like an insurance plan for those small and medium-sized businesses to tide them over until we conquered the virus.

It was such a great idea and many businesses that were pretty essential but not designated, particularly medical franchises, came right back to life. Anyone who sells used cars came back with a vengeance. It's been a V recovery those companies.

But anyone had to face the fact that the disease will just cost small and medium-sized businesses too much because of social distancing for individual non-protected retailers and struggling restaurants that can't open for more than a few tables. Sure the outside restaurants are working. But I don't know a restaurant owner who thinks she can get past October, even without all the tables and heat lamps in the world.

Contrast that with the amazing numbers Costco (COST) put up last week. Costco, the company that first embraced masks, is doing extraordinarily well. Why not? Prices you can't beat and wide aisles that make it safe to shop there. What smaller grocery chain can keep up?

Same with smaller hotels. About a third are in arrears in New York, in part because business travel has been curtailed and in part because there are far fewer travelers and tourists. They could be helped if they can get money instantly but I think they, too, could be goners: good news for Marriott (MAR) , which can survive because it has a great balance sheet.

Oh and let's not forget Chipotle (CMG) and Darden Restaurants (DRI) . They could handle devastating comparable store sales and bounce back stronger than ever. My charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, owns Starbucks (SBUX) as a bet against Congress and the administration doing anything to help. Chipotle and Starbucks have been driving hard bargains with real estate investment trusts that are truly additive to the gross margins. They are able to scoop up good real estate because the small and medium-sized retailers have already vanished.

No, I am not being political. If you told me that the consumer was flush, I would tell you that retail sales would be spread among so many different stores, that there could be a boon.

But if you told me that there would be no safety net for small and medium-sized businesses from Congress and the White House I would say buy Amazon (AMZN) , Walmart (WMT) , Target (TGT) Costco, Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) because they are just going to get stronger and stronger as the little guys falter without PPP.

You could argue that we don't need restaurants. We can eat at home. Smaller retailers? You can get it on Amazon. But the notion of someone working like mad to succeed and hope to get bigger than one store or one retailer?

Washington failed.

It's too late.

Great for the stock market. Horrible for the 14 to 15 million souls trying to put food on the dinner table. Thanks for nothing.

(Costco, Starbucks and Amazon are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells these stocks? Learn more now.)

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer manages as a charitable trust, is long COST, SBUX and AMZN.

TAGS: Investing | Markets | Politics | REITs | Small Cap | Stocks | Trading | Restaurants | U.S. Equity | Coronavirus |

More from Stocks

Here's the Secret to Market Timing

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
May 21, 2022 10:00 AM EDT

You've probably been told timing the market is futile, but here's a way to make it possible -- if you're willing to do the work.

It's Official: That Hairy Animal With Claws and Sharp Teeth Is a Bear

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
May 20, 2022 4:31 PM EDT

Along with the media proclamation of a bear market, we have some improvement in the charts of many smaller stocks, but ...

Applied Materials Slips on Miss: Where Will the Chips May Fall

Bruce Kamich
May 20, 2022 1:00 PM EDT

Let's see what the charts say.

Consumer Confidence Is Shot

Bret Jensen
May 20, 2022 12:00 PM EDT

Until things start to improve for the average consumer, it is hard to see significant upward moves for either the markets or economic activity.

I'm Cautious on Marvell Technology Ahead of Earnings

Bruce Kamich
May 20, 2022 11:52 AM EDT

Let's review the charts and indicators.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 10:10 AM EDT JAMES "REV SHARK" DEPORRE

    This Weekend on Real Money

    "Market Timing for Dummies"
  • 01:44 PM EDT STEPHEN GUILFOYLE

    Stocks Under $10 Portfolio

    We're making a series of trades here.
  • 03:07 PM EDT PAUL PRICE

    Why Is Walmart Down Big Today?

    Besides its poor earnings report Walmart was way...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2022 TheStreet, Inc., 225 Liberty Street, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10281

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login