The following segment was aired on the June 30 Today show:
MEREDITH VIEIRA: And now to the economy and new jitters on Wall Street. The Dow opens today below the 10,000 mark for the first time in nearly three weeks after plunging 268 points on Tuesday. So what is driving the latest fear among investors? Jim Cramer is the host of CNBC's Mad Money. Jim, good morning to you.
JIM CRAMER: Good morning, Meredith.
VIEIRA: Here's how one writer put it. He said the markets were spooked by the slowing economies in China and in Europe. Do investors have good reason to be spooked?
CRAMER: I think that they do if we don't start creating some jobs here. Those economies do matter, but what's most important is job creation. If it we get a number on Friday, which is our national labor number, that shows no new jobs created, then we have reason to worry.
VIEIRA: And, and that is the rumor, that, that's exactly what we're gonna see on Friday.
CRAMER: And I think that's what really drove our market down. The other economies? Europe's been bad for some time. I think China's okay. We are the worry. There's too much fear and there's way too much anxiety about what Washington will or will not do in terms of taxes.
VIEIRA: Well do you believe the President's policies are creating the conditions necessary for businesses to hire? There's a lot of controversy about them.
CRAMER: Well I think we have to just look at the broad numbers and say that they're not working. I would, look, it would be terrific to say that there's tons of jobs being created and people aren't applying for them but we know that's not the case.
VIEIRA: You also have the Consumer Confidence Index came out on Tuesday down 10 points from May to June, makes it harder for the President to sell his economic policy. How significant is that number?
CRAMER: I think that, that was also a huge part of what happened yesterday. We started realizing that May was bad. Now maybe June is bad. We don't know what's causing it. We know that there's just a total lack of confidence and a belief that there will be no new jobs created. I think, by the way, that, that's too gloomy. I think we should be more confident and I think that the gloom is way overdone and that the market was way overdone yesterday.
VIEIRA: Yeah but, but there are economists that are saying we're headed toward a depression or a double digit recession. You don't buy that?
CRAMER: We just had one of those. You don't go right back into it. Look, in 1938 our country did and if you want to go back in history, it was because we decided to go to a balanced budget. I read all those negative columnists and I was surprised that they all, in unison, decided that everything is awful right now. It's not. It's not great, Meredith, but it's not that bad. It's nothing like what they say it is.
VIEIRA: So you're advising people stay in the market.
CRAMER: Definitely! Don't make a move. It's just not worth it.
VIEIRA: Alright Jim Cramer, thank you so much.
