Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/18/26

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Mad Money starts now.

**Jim Cramer** (1:18)
Hey, I'm Cramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Cramer. A few of my friends, I'm just trying to save a little money here. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate, to teach. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. Nothing's easier than being negative right now.
We practically revel in it, don't we? There's so much to dislike about the economy, about the frantic nature of tech, about oil, about the present sailing of the war, about inflation, about housing affordability, and about the bond market, whether it be the two-year, the ten-year, or the dreaded 30-year varietal.
So, it's easy to see why the market sells all from the daily today with Dow slipping 116 points, S&P declining 0.69%, Nasdaq tumbling 1.33%, a true annihilation for all the great data center and hardware stocks that have been so hot. But for a moment, let me give you an alternate reality.
No, I'm not going to say that while we have sent too much debt, so much that we have to send now a trillion-dollar bill just on the interest of the deficit, that it's something we can handle. That would put me right up here on the top of the stupidity chart. I don't know how it gets resolved here or in the other countries with rates too high. But let's accept for the moment that the bank won't be broken anytime soon and move on.
No excuses for the president either. With the way this war is going, it's becoming a rare issue that now unites the left and the right with disgust. It's not even controversial, right? Almost no one likes it, not just because it raises the price of oil fuels, especially diesel. We all have our true Norths. I like the late General George Marshall, the highest ranking officer in the army during World War II. He would not tolerate losing. Neither would Harry Truman. President Trump often talks about loser this and loser that, and how presidents have lost war after war. If he wants to see who didn't lose a war, maybe he should check those two out. Or how about getting right with Lincoln? Wars can be won even by someone who says he's not willing to lose. But I want to make a contrary argument. It's bigger than that for a moment. We all know that as long as the president and the Iranians can't agree to anything, and the MOU has expired, we can't expect anything good to come of it.
That said, we also know that these oil rallies can get overdone. We know that the Strait is one way of getting oil through the Stimie. The Houthis in Yemen are trying to type the Red Sea too. We know the Iranians are receiving all sorts of weapons from Russia. Can't believe the Russians have anything to spare, but apparently they do. But the Houthis might just be on borrowed time, given that they're surrounded by enemies. So I'm going to count the Red Sea as a stopping point.
At the same time, we'll assume we'll be pumping much more oil here in America because there are a host of pipelines that will now take natural gas that flares when the oil companies drill. You don't have to flare in this country. There will be a huge amount of drilling coming out that you're not going to be hearing about in New Mexico. It isn't being considered. It should be. I bet that becomes our biggest growth area within the next five years. The Bakken is growing again. Venezuela is pumping even more as its refining capacity is shot. The Chinese seem to have a limitless strategic petroleum reserve, too. I just don't see oil skyrocketing much past $100 in rent. It's now at $91. Not positive! But it's not the end of the world, even as it's jacking de-slip well over $5 a gallon.