An Extra Hurdle By Jim Cramer About this article: The destruction of things other than common stock, along with the destruction of the hedge funds, has made a mockery of picking common stocks in this environment. For most of my time on Wall Street I didn't worry about what the debt markets were saying about the stocks I liked. That's because the debt was almost always money good unless I was speaking of some sort of on-the-ropes auto sector company. But ever since the government confiscated the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac preferreds after telling us the entities were well-capitalized, and ever since Lehman's and Washington Mutual's preferreds were obliterated, investing in the common stock of a company that has debt outstanding has become fraught with danger. Take General Motors. We have oodles of GM debt trading in the 30s. Same with CIT! Also, we have Citigroup debt trading in the 60s, so I would not buy the... Or, call us at 1-866-321-TSCM (8726) Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. ET. Outside the U.S. and in Canada, call 1-212-321-5200.

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