If January is any indication for 2009 there may be little hope for investors with the Dow losing 9% this month but Cramer doesn’t want anyone to give up.  Indicies show that a third of the S&P 500 stocks finished January higher along with a third of the S&P Mid-Cap 400.

Palm (PALM) added 150% to its share price, Shaw Group (SGR) added 36%, Google (GOOG) advanced double digits and Morgan Stanley (MS) is up 26%.  Also Walgreen (WAG), Wyeth (WYE), Symantec (SYMC), Sallie Mae (SLM), Peabody Energy (BTU), Nation Oilwell Varco (NOC) and Monsanto (MON) and along with many more returning profits to shareholders.

Cramer is not a fan of the current market though and wants us playing defensive high yielding, recession resistant stocks.  He named BP (BP), Tupperware Brands (TUP), Kraft Foods (KFT), UPS (UPS) Emerson (EMR) and Clorox (CLX).

We were told to focus on preserving capital until some stability is found in the markets and in the economy.  The talk of the good bank/bad bank plan that has been talked about much lately looks at a move toward nationalizing banks.  If the word “nationalized” is mentioned Cramer said look at Bank of America (BAC) or Citigroup (C).  A situation where good assets are being bought and sold to good banks the only ones in position to seize assets are good banks like JPMorgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Cramer thinks this will work because history has shown us in the savings and loan crisis that it will.