白宫将暂停"旧车换现金"计划

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Now to the widely popular "Cash for Clunkers" program, it has proved so successful that helped give Ford its first monthly sales increase in nearly two years. But now the program is about to run through its first billion dollars and the White House says it will suspend it if the Senate does not approve an additional two billion dollars. Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's Mad Money. Jim, good morning to you.

Morning, Meredith (Meredith Vieira).

Money well spent. Do you think it would add in an additional two billion?

This could have put people to work, so therefore, this point in economy, money well spent.

So when talk about priorities, the priority is auto sales over the federal deficit?

If you can put a beleaguered, a beleaguered company, group, any of these companies to work, you’re talking about Ford, GM, Chrysler, it's really terrific. So yes, I think that is worth adding this one to the budget deficit. It's stimulating the economy for real.

A lot of administration votes were making the rounds yesterday in the Sunday talk shows, talking about how this stimulus program is working. Can they take credit for what some see as an economic rebound?

No. It hasn't gone through yet. There's still a lot of stimulus that's hung up. I think there are two reasons why we have a rebound, / we do have a rebound. One is China, their stimulus has worked. They're the big engine of the world. And the second is the Federal Reserve which has kept rates low and has done a remarkable job.

Yeah. You’ve been a critic of Ben Bernanke in the past, but you think that he's doing the right thing. How so?

In the last, I'd say, nine months, this man has changed everything. He realized the depths of what was a garden-variety depression, flooded the country with money and made sure that we were confident that our banks were not going to go under. He's done an amazing job, it's a full turn. He is the guy I would say has saved the US economy.

So when the President says we are at the beginning of the end of the recession, you agree with that.

Yes, he's absolutely right. Things have changed. They were going to be less worse. Now they're actually getting better. Part of this is because autos are better. You can't dismiss this kind of program. There is a feel-good aspect, we are in a psychological decline, it could reverse it.

But in the months ahead, what are the indicators that you are gonna be looking at, Jim, to see whether this is really gonna stick?

Same as the President, you've got to see unemployment numbers stop going up. People are still firing in order to be able to improve their bottom line. So I don't see this improving for the next six to eight months. But there's a lot that's good: housing has stabilized, autos could stabilize. These are two huge engines of the economy.

All right, Jim Cramer, as always, thanks very much.

Vocabulary:

1.       beleaguered: experiencing a lot of problems or criticism

2.       garden-variety: ordinary, typical, average