Updated from 3:11 p.m. EDT

On

CNBC's

"Stop Trading!" segment Monday, Jim Cramer defended his assertion that it was safe to bank with

Bear Stearns

(JPM) - Get Report

and reminded viewers he hadn't recommended buying the stock.

"I said the common stock was worthless on Friday," Cramer said. He drew a distinction between buying shares of Bear and banking with the broker. "If you kept your money in Bear, you made out. You got the liquidity. I could've caused a run on the bank and said, 'Take your money out of Bear.'" Cramer said that to cause a run on Bear would have been "reckless" and "stupid."

"I cannot cause a run. It turned out the

Federal Reserve

guaranteed the money," Cramer continued. He said that although the Fed has guaranteed the money "in the vault" at Bear Stearns, but didn't guarantee the equity. People who bank with Bear will be alright, he said. "We got a guarantee.

JPMorgan

(JPM) - Get Report

is now Bear. ... I came out and said at $36 the stock was worthless, for heaven's sake."

However, "Keeping your money at Bear turned out to be 100% right. ... Every billionaire got bailed out by the Fed." Cramer said he believes that common shares of most large banks are "worthless."

Cramer said JPMorgan got a great price for Bear. "Each time, they say, 'We looked at the books. We can't make that bid work.' ... They say, 'How bout 2 bucks?' and it's done."

Cramer said that the Fed should have guaranteed

Fannie Mae

(FNM)

paper. "This government, they could care less about Fannie Mae," he said. "I said the Fed should be in there buying $200 billion in Fannie Mae paper, not financing JPMorgan to steal Bear." He said that Bear would have survived if the government had guaranteed Fannie Mae paper.

Concerning lawsuits JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon may face in the wake of the buyout, Cramer said, "He probably just made $30 billion. They said the paper's almost worthless. It's worth a lot." He said the deal was a "good trade by Jamie."

Know What You Own:

Bear Stearns operates in the financial services industry, and some of the other stocks in its field include

Citigroup

(C) - Get Report

,

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

,

Morgan Stanley

(MS) - Get Report

,

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

and

Lehman Brothers

(LEH)

. These stocks were recently trading at ($18.60, -5.97%), ($151.00, -3.74%), ($36.75, -7.08%), ($41.18, -5.36%) and ($30.91, -21.27%)) respectively. For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's

Investing A-to-Z

section.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned.

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for

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