All This Bad Data Out There Has a Silver Lining

This column by Jim Cramer appeared earlier Tuesday on RealMoney. Click here for a free trial, and enjoy incisive commentary all day, every day.

Maybe that turns on who "we" is. If you are an American business person, no, absolutely not, you're not rooting for negative numbers. You want your business to thrive. Of course, you want to make more money. It's what you do. But if you are an owner of stock, any stock, if you are using the stock market for retirement or for savings to put your kid through school or to augment your paycheck, I think you are now beginning to see the silver lining of the miserable economic news: change in Washington. In fact, every time we see a downtick in the popular polls for the administration or Congress the large stockholders I know secretly cheer. They can't cheer out loud without looking like Scrooge. Or they fear the wrath of Obama, which, on Wall Street, by the way, feels like the wrath of Nixon. It is, however, how many of them privately feel. You know it. I know it. It is just that nobody wants to say it. Nobody wants to even believe it, as it so downright cynical. And, of course, nobody wants to criticize this president other than the people who are paid to criticize -- the Republicans in Congress and various news entities that cater to the right. You take your public life in your hands the moment you do. It's dangerous. The national media's warmth toward the president and Congress extends to the business press so no one wants to draw the line to say "OK, the data is bad so we are going to get the GOP in and so we have to hope the data stays bad." No one wants to say, "Goodie, we may be doing worse than we thought, let's go buy stocks." You will be nailed nine ways to Sunday by the adoring press.   Loading Comments...   1 2 3 Last » Next › adsonar_placementId=1341527;adsonar_pid=879768;adsonar_ps=-1;adsonar_zw=600;adsonar_zh=280;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com';   Loading Comments...   Recent Comments Featured Photo Galleries var galljs = document.createElement('script'); galljs.src = 'http://js.thestreet-static.com/files/tsc/v2008/js/_1281566520100/min/pages/gallery.js'; var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; head.appendChild(galljs); Go to Slideshow Archive TheStreet Premium Services Compare All Services Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS: Now any level of investor can trade right alongside a Wall Street pro — and enjoy 24/7 access to his portfolio! Learn More Login RealMoney Silver: Get Doug Kass's exclusive trading diary + 5 of TheStreet's top premium services including Action Alerts PLUS and RealMoney — all on one streamlined page. 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