Speaker 1:
From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're inside the ICE House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision in global business. The dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution of global growth for over 225 years. Each week, we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs and harness the engine of capitalism right here, right now at the NYSE and at ISIN exchanges and clearing houses around the world. And now welcome inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh King:
Let's zoom in on March 2005 when Mad Money first went on the air on CNBC 15 years ago this week from Mad Money to March madness. After a grueling tournament, North Carolina went on to defeat the fighting lion eye 75 to 70 to take the NCAA men's basketball championship, the Tar Heels fourth title at the Edward James Dome in St. Louis. But on the other side of the world there's problems. I went on the website of the World Health Organization last night. Yeah, my life is pretty dramatic that way. You know what? They've got their disease outbreaks by month, by day, going back to 1996. March 4th, 2005, there's a report of dengue fever in East Timor, 336 hospitalized cases and 22 deaths. March 9th, 2005, plague in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 114 cases and 54 deaths and March 11th, 2005, avian flu in Vietnam that had been going on since January, 24 cases in that country, 13 of them fatal.
Josh King:
Did any of that worry the market? The Dow begins that month, March 1st, closing at 10,830 and ends it March 30th at 10,540, a hefty loss of 300 points for the month. Where is it today? 26,121 as of the last close. Anyone who's been in the middle of the market on the volatility roller coaster of the last few weeks, the moms and dads watching the retirement nest eggs or college savings accounts pitch and roll has got to have wondered is this all due to a new strain of coronavirus coming from Wuhan, China and spreading across the globe, making you look at the stainless steel handrail of the number one train at Houston Street and asking yourself, "Is that thing really safe?" Or are other market forces at foot? Were we spooked that corporate earn things had topped out, that Bernie Sanders was headed to the convention in Milwaukee as the presumptive Democratic nominee, that the big institutions and algorithmic traders were just looking to correct an overheated market, a market that has grown our 401ks steadily since January 2009.
Josh King:
So step back. We know where the average investor goes for guidance. The show that takes the 6:00 PM time slot way back 15 years ago on CNBC. The host, do I even need to ask? A Philly kid, the kind of kid who sold ice cream at the vet during Phillies' games, a kid who'd later go on to Harvard, edit the Crimson, cut his teeth as a newspaper reporter down in Tallahassee, and eventually found his way back to Cambridge, Harvard Law School, and eventually trading stocks at Goldman Sachs before hanging out his shingle at his own hedge fund. It was the go-go '80s, Wall Street, Manhattan, New York City. Was there any other place to be in 1987? At least until October 19th, when the Dow crashed 508 points or 22.6% in one day.
Josh King:
Do I need to remind you what happened just last week, February 24th? The Dow down 1031, February 25th, down 879, February 27th, down 1190, the largest one day drop in history. And yet unlike 1987, only down 4.42%, more than erased by the rise of few days later on March 5th, of 1293 points or 5.09%, the largest one day rise in history. But the next day, back down again. So where do we go from here? After the break that Philly kid, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, fresh off ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange to mark the 15th anniversary of the debut of his show on CNBC. He's here inside the ICE House right after this.
Speaker 3:
And now a word from John Van Siclen, CEO of Dynatrace, NYSE ticker DT.
John Van Siclen:
We're a software intelligence company for the enterprise cloud. Software rules the world and we bring performance and intelligence to those who develop, operate, and drive business outcomes for the digital age. We sell our products in 70 different countries. Many of our customers trade on the NYSE. It is the enterprise class customer base that we target and we're thrilled to be part of the family. Dynatrace is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Josh King:
Coming to the turnstiles of the New York Stock Exchange at 11 Wall Street every weekday morning is a man with a satchel loaded down with earnings, transcripts, and analyst reports making sense of the markets. I know, I see it every day, an institution on post nine on the NYSE floor, when all those papers combine and find voice to create needed wisdom on the air. We've had his Squawk on the Street compadres on the show before Carl Quintanilla, when he was just back from the winter Olympics in Pyeonchang back in 2018, and David Faber regaling us with stories of his pursuit of Bernie Ebbers among his other great scoops. We did that show last year. So today we complete the cycle, the legendary Jim Cramer. He just rang the opening bell of the NYSE to mark 50 years on the air as the host of Mad Money. And now he's here with us in the library before he heads to Englewood Cliffs, just over the George Washington bridge to record yet another episode of his decade and a half run, making us all smarter about the markets. Welcome, Jim.
Jim Cramer:
Well, you're way too kind. I feel that this is a time when I can really, I think, really dig back to when I started and recognize it wasn't a good time. There's never been a good time and yet look where the market's gone. I always urge people to think it's been always something that's bad. This time it's a play gear. Other times it's a crash or maybe be it's a recession or the Fed does what's wrong. What happens? Look where the market is. So let's not lose faith. It's been a suckers game to bet against faith.
Josh King:
But it is a different kind of time. You tweeted the other day that you carry a mask, gloves and Purell. Gojo Industries, Jim out of Akron, Ohio, the maker of Purell is privately held. They could do a pretty robust IPO down on the floor if they wanted to.
Jim Cramer:
They sure could. Right now there's a big shortage. I've been recommending the stock of Chlorox CLX forever because of bleach. Bleach kills everything. When I was a young reporter, I covered a train wreck. It was a bleach train was going to a paper factory and five people died. I went in, I got blind for a couple days just because people don't realize how powerful bleach is. And that is Clorox at 170 still a buy.
Josh King:
Your partner, Carl Quintanilla, tweeted out pictures of the Duomo in Milan. No one there in the square but the pigeons, not a lot of buyers of Alfa Romeos out there.
Jim Cramer:
No, and I was at the Lamborghini factory which is about an hour from Milan last year. I go to Milan quite a bit. And I was at Milan fashion week last year. And that was a time when many of the fashion designers were upset there were many Asians there and the fashion designers all complained, "They're here to copy me." That had been the resounding theme. And I do not think it's a coincidence that we had an outbreak in Milan. There's this international group that descends on there, some of whom obviously were sick. And that is a country and part of the country that has an elderly population well in excess of all the countries. We want to wish them well. I do a lot of business in Italy and it's tragic that it's being hit so badly, but they're all covered. They're resilient people as we know, from Rome.
Josh King:
From Milan, Jim, to Philadelphia, your Flyers are hosting the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night.
Jim Cramer:
They look good.
Josh King:
Wells Fargo Center.
Jim Cramer:
They look good.
Josh King:
You think we'll see empty stadiums in the US?
Jim Cramer:
Yes. I think that in the end, my school district just closed today, which is Central Bucks West, which is where I lived after I got out of my... When I was at my hedge fund. And what was just shocking, by the way, national title for football, is that these are healthy people, healthy regions and yet what you're trying to do is discourage people. If you have them, have your kids stay home from school, it does tend a signal that you shouldn't go to the Flyers game. Would I go to the Flyers game? Damn right, because they're good. And I know you could say, "Well, wait a second, Jim, you're being shortsighted." I carry my Purell, you heard what I do. I carry my gloves. I do care tremendously that I have those so that they give me the confidence. A lot of people want to shake my hand. And at this point, the network has advised that not to be the case, but I think that showing... It's not courageous to go to the Flyers. You take prudent actions. I'm not going to... I'll kiss my wife, but that's about it.
Josh King:
I watched your interview just go down with Larry Kudlow. My memories go back to pictures of Bill Clinton and Bob Rubin on the Rose Garden steps of Hank Paulson and George Bush during the financial crisis. And you've been talking a lot this morning about the nation's need to have something akin to the Manhattan project.
Jim Cramer:
Look, I think that there are a lot of people right now who seem envious of the Chinese and their totalitarian ways and how they were able to cut back on the illness because they did things that we could never do. I'm proud that we could never do those things because we are democracy. But what we do best is capture the tremendous ingenuity of our country. I interview a lot of the drug CEOs. There's so many great scientists here. If we had them focus on monoclonal antibodies that would work, we had them focus on a vaccine and really just put them in an Alamogordo like place. I think that would be better than trying to give everybody in the country money.
Jim Cramer:
Why? Because I am so proud of the people who we all went to school with who were smarter than us, who went on to these fabulous institutions and can invent. Not unlike when I was a boy and I was told not to go outside because there was polio. And then suddenly there was a man named Salk who solved polio. There's a man named Fauci who works with the president who solved AIDS. These were all things that weren't supposed to be solved. I'd like to put as much money as possible into the hands of those with ingenuity, who I believe will solve this, rather than making us a police state, because that is not the way our country solves things.
Josh King:
As Bob Rudin would say, "Jim, markets go up, markets go down, but Mad Money endures." So congratulations.
Jim Cramer:
Thank you.
Josh King:
On 50 years of booyah.
Jim Cramer:
One last thing I'd just like to say. My dad was in the Pacific. He had nine hot landings. He was in the Sixth Army. They were supposed to land on the southernmost tip of Japan. And he was ready. He was part of an invasion force. They knew where they had to go. And then ingenuity, we dropped the atomic bomb. I know some people are these days saying that maybe that wasn't right. I wouldn't have been born. And I think this country is a great place and we beat a totalitarian nation then, and we'll beat this now without the help of totalitarian ways.
Josh King:
And because you were born Jim Cramer, there have been 15 years of Mad Money. So congratulations.
Jim Cramer:
Thank you so much.
Josh King:
I don't know if they were on the bombing run, getting ready to doing practice and they said booyah, but where did that expression come from for your show?
Jim Cramer:
Came from my old radio show where someone in New Orleans, my affiliate, said that he had made a huge amount of money in a stock. And he didn't know what we said in the north, but he said in the south we say booyah and then next caller said, "Well, I don't know. I guess I should say booyah too." And there is something that is magnetic about the term and it stuck with me. I love it. I love it. It's signature.
Josh King:
I watched you and your team at the podium of the New York Stock Exchange, a very different image than irrational exuberance over the last 15 years. What were your feelings up there with your team around you, with your colleagues on the Squawk on the Street set on post nine in front of you and looking out on this institution that has been such an important part of your life?
Jim Cramer:
Well, the first thing I thought of was when we were in a five years where my father and I rang the bell and I love my father very much. He was 92 when he passed. And every day at seven o'clock, he would call me when the show's over. He goes, "Jamesy, that was the best show you've ever done." Every night he said it. Sometimes I said, "Oh my God, it's seven o'clock. There's my father with the James here." I think every minute at seven o'clock, "Oh geez. I wish my dad would call and say, Jamesy that was the best show ever." We have an amazing team. I've got a great network. I'm so proud of the work we do in the Stock Exchange and the history, to be part of that history, is chilling.
Jim Cramer:
And I think people should recognize the greatness of this institution. I think we're having a resurgence of individual investors among younger people. And what they should do is study the most actives and look at what companies come public and try to find the next big one because they're out there and you'll find them here. And that's why I love to focus on the New York Stock Exchange because younger people get to make money for their future by taking a little more risk than I can now at my age, or maybe I could have taken 15 years ago, we started Mad Money.
Josh King:
I mean, before we get to the legacy of Mad Money, Jim, let's tackle the tale of two markets that you shared with your viewers on Wednesday night. You framed it like a boxing match. Let's go to the Rumble in the Jungle. Kinshasa, Zaire, October 30th, 1974, Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman.
Speaker 6:
Foreman throwing more punches now, maybe this could be the tactic of Ali to let the man punch himself out. 30 seconds left in round eight. Very even play. Ali is sneaky, right hand, another sneaky, right hand. This time he works over to Foreman shoulder Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The fight is done. Muhammad Ali, a dramatic eighth round knockout. He knocks out George Foreman. Muhammad Ali has done it. The great man has done it.
Josh King:
29 seconds left in the eighth round. Jim, the bond market is Foreman. The stock market is Ali. Is that the way you see it?
Jim Cramer:
Yes, I do. And of course Ali was the GOAT, the greatest of all time, and our stock market is the greatest of all time. I believe ultimately our stock market is made up of companies that have incredible balance sheets, certainly better than the United States, that play good dividends that are far bigger than what the bond market will offer. Right now the bond market is engendering fear. It's saying, "Listen, the economy's going to collapse." I think the economy can have a setback, service, travel, leisure, which by the way, are all flying today. Those stocks, they always defy the negativity. I remain convinced that we will get through this. It won't be easy. None of these challenges are easy in the 15 years since we doing Mad Money, but particularly in the 2007, 2009 period. But I want to point out that was a period where the institutions were shaky, where you were worried about the ATM working, where you couldn't believe that you would think, "I can't keep that much money in that bank."
Jim Cramer:
I actually put my money in multiple banks because you only had, at that point, a $100,000 insurance. I'm blessed to be able to be lucky enough to have money that I needed to be able to spread around. I'm certainly not trying to say I'm rich, but I'm just saying that was the tenor at that time. I don't feel that now. Yes, I worry about personal safety. Yes, the numbers are not good for someone my age. Yes, I have to think about it. And it's top of mind because health is always more important than money, but I have to give our viewers some facts, not some fear, because the facts trump the fear any day of the week.
Josh King:
You just talked to Kudlow this morning. Here is President Trump from last Tuesday, a little chopper talk from the south lawn of the White House, reacting to the Fed's move earlier in the week.
Speaker 7:
[inaudible 00:17:02]
Donald Trump:
I would say that the Fed fund rate, the rate as you would call it, is too high. It should be eased down so that we're competitive. Look, we have the greatest country in the world. We have the strongest country in the world. It's our dollar that the world relies on. We should have the low rate, but we have a Fed that doesn't agree with that. I disagree with them.
Josh King:
I've kept my eye on you this week, Jim, looking forward to this conversation. I saw your reaction on air to Jay Powell's half point rate cut. Your face, always so expressive, seemed to say at all. It was a look of concern, I think. What's your message to those most on the mind of SEC chairman Jay Clayton, Mr. And Mrs. 401k?
Jim Cramer:
Well, I did not like what Jay Powell did. I've been critical of the Fed periodically. Jay was much too tight at the end of 2018. What concerned me is that they have a Fed meeting coming up. And if this is a really tough time, could there be a better moment than a cut at a Fed meeting and then have a press conference and lay out that? So a regularly scheduled cut is fine. A cut that just shocked us has left us where? Has left us with a bond market that's in tatters, tatters in terms of the wrong way of rates going down, left us with tremendous fear that maybe the things we don't know. Jay Powell and I've known Jay for many years, what he did was make me fearful and that trifle with the facts and I don't like that.
Josh King:
On your show Wednesday night, you opened with a big screenshot of the S&P short range oscillator from marketedge.com. It's a service that you pay for, sort of your own security blanket. Tell you what's what, what does it tell you and want to tell us?
Jim Cramer:
We're at a level of oversold, so to speak, where there's too much selling that is almost unmatched other than 2007, 2009. So you could say, well, there were the... We saw five occasions where we were down this much, minus 12. I guess it is my proprietary... I've been watching since '86 when I took it and it came by hand Saturday morning. But what I look at that, and I say, there's been of the five times, four of them were buying opportunities. And the fifth one was a delayed buying opportunity. It actually was down this level when Warren Buffet wrote that perhaps we should be buying stocks, buy America IM was a piece. It was October 16th of 2008 and was in the New York Times. He was wrong by 2000 data points. So you could say, "Well, wait a second. What a clown?" He bought at 8000, went to 6500, 8500
Jim Cramer:
I say, "Look, you can't even see that blip down in the Dow." And am I too bullish? I'm not bullish or bearish. I'm realist. And I'm realist in saying that there are plenty of companies that are doing well. There are plenty of stocks that I like. Are there more stocks that I don't like? Absolutely. Because I do believe that earnings matter and the earnings are going to be negative for a lot of companies. There's a lot of stocks that are up that I think... Look travel and these really should not be rallying because people are worried about their health. They don't travel, but at the same time, they're bargains. And I know that sounds cavalier, but in 2007, I said if you needed your money, sell it. And I said it on national TV. In 2009, when my late friend Mark Keane said buy it, I said I agree with him.
Jim Cramer:
You went from 12,000 to 6,500. It was a nice miss, even with taxes. And then you got back in. Now yes, was it elegant? No. Was it right? Yes. And I think that we're not yet approaching the... We're already past the point where if you really wanted to sell something, you could. I don't encourage selling until we bounce, but I do think that you have to high grade your portfolio. Get out of the stocks that aren't going to do well in this period and get into the stocks... Get out of the Carnival Cruises and get into Johnson & Johnson. It's not so hard.
Josh King:
This one really green spot this week up 5.04% on Wednesday following on Super Tuesday. Jim, Senator Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race yesterday, leaving only Vice President Biden and Senator Sanders to vie for the Democratic nomination. It wasn't too long ago from above the floor of the NYSE that you quizzed Senator Warren about her plans. Let's take a listen.
Jim Cramer:
Senator, one of the things we talk about at Mad Money is that they're more than just shareholders, they're stakeholders.
Elizabeth Warren:
Yeah.
Jim Cramer:
You produced a very thought article in the Wall Street Journal about companies shouldn't be accountable only to shareholders. Tell us about it.
Elizabeth Warren:
All right. So you know how American economy worked for decades, shoot, for centuries. And that was the biggest companies in this country had multiple responsibilities, responsibility to their shareholders, to their employees, to their customers and to the communities that they were involved in. And it worked right? Everybody got rich.
Jim Cramer:
Coming back to it like Salesforce is saying it, but the vast majority are not.
Elizabeth Warren:
Stock market went up. Productivity goes up and workers do better. We built the great American middle class.
Josh King:
We built the great American middle class. Beyond being on your program did she get an adequate chance to rebuild the great American middle class?
Jim Cramer:
No. She actually made... Senator Warren made some really great points. She actually had constructed a document that was actually not her own to some degree. It were thoughts of Reagan in 1980. I was a great fan of President Reagan and am a great fan of what he did with the economy. And we were kicking that around about how she is now in what was the Reagan camp in terms of getting it so that the workers made more money. The CEOs, Reagan would've been astonished how much more the CEOs made than the rank and file. That was not his way. That great man understood that there shouldn't be such disparities of wealth. And that's really what Senator Warren was talking about. Now, Senator Warren came on my show because I was at war with her during the period when the economy was not strong because I had defended the banks and she was unhappy with my defense of the banks.
Jim Cramer:
I was trying to keep the banks alive and she felt that the banks, bankers, should be punished. And we managed to come up with rapprochement to the point where I regularly talk with her. I think she's incredibly bright. By the way, she was the candidate to both my daughters in favor, just so you know where I'm coming from. They are trying to figure out what to do with Senator Sanders, but there is without a doubt, a genuine nature to her. I think that her campaign got too ugly, but I think she's a very solid soul. And she's a member of the democracy that we all treasure. Certainly entitled to her views. Not necessarily all of them, my views, but she had very thoughtful things to say about business.
Josh King:
So if Reagan is the baseline, and I'm with you on that, I'm as much of a fan of him as you are. What is the state of the middle class and how might it fare under four more years of President Trump or four very different kind of years under either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders?
Jim Cramer:
Well, let's just say that hate him or like him, the president's been incredible for the economy and the jobless numbers are extraordinary. I still can't believe I was looking at them and always just astonished Asian unemployment, 2% African American employment so low. It's very cheering. And I know that what's about to occur with the coronavirus is going to change those numbers, but it's been heartening. And again, they hate them or like him. It's been an incredibly heartening moment for the economy. Do I feel that the middle class was benefiting? It was actually starting to come back. I hope it doesn't go away though. Finally getting some higher wages and they can have jobs, they're plentiful and that's great for the middle class. I am not a fan of pay packages that award CEOs, millions and millions of dollars. I'm going to mention someone who's disgraced, Les Moonves.
Jim Cramer:
He was the highest paid executive in this country making more than $50 million a year. And that astonishes me, he wasn't worth it. And I think there are a lot of CEOs where they are the comp committee on the board of directors is looking at other CEOs in that same industry and they just keep ratcheting and ratcheting, ratcheting up their pay. That should stop. I don't like it. I think the workers should make more. Can you imagine if each worker at CBS got some of Les Moonves' contract? They'd be able to get a couple years mortgage money for heaven's sake. So I agree with Senator Warren and President Reagan, I think that the middle class needs to have a champion and is she the right champion? I'm not sure.
Jim Cramer:
I think that President Trump was doing very well by the middle class for economics. There are other issue that he and I certainly disagree on. I've known him for many, many years. Larry Kudlow, of course, was my partner before Mad Money, was my partner for three years. And I enjoy his company and like his views very, very much. I know he was off ground. He criticized for being an optimist. Can we have some optimism? It is refreshing. He and I disagree on what will happen with the coronavirus, but we don't disagree about the notion that our country will triumph over it.
Josh King:
So as we head toward our break, Jim, what will happen with the coronavirus? You get a lot of your information from a lot of different places. One of them is from former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb, here he is with Margaret Brennan on CBS's Face the Nation just a few days ago.
Margaret Brennan:
You served in the Trump administration. What do you think the administration is doing now that is right, wrong in its handling of the virus?
Scott Gottlieb:
Well, certainly expanding the diagnostic capability is the right move. We're going to have the capacity by the end of this week to diagnose probably 10,000 people a day or screen 10,000 people a day with the public health labs, 100 labs doing 100 tests a day by the end of the week. After that, we'll probably bring on another 10,000. So we'll have testing capacity of perhaps as much as 20,000 a day by the end of the next two weeks, once we bring on the academic labs. That was really a critical step, bringing on those academic labs and leveraging their capacity. These are the major medical centers. What we need to do now is make a real concerted effort to get a therapeutic. We know when this started, but we don't know when this is going to end. And what's going to end it is our technology. Our savior here is going to be our technology. And we need to make a really robust effort to try to develop a therapeutic.
Josh King:
Developing a therapeutic is essentially, Jim, our faith in the technology of drug companies and this institution that provides them the capital to do the work they've got to do. Plus I think you'd say with the Manhattan style project, the government stepping in to help.
Jim Cramer:
Yeah. Well, look, you have to make that kind of declaration because it gives hope that we can do better. Hope is not a bad thing that we can solve this thing. Dr. Gottlieb is someone whose company I enjoy tremendously, and he's been dead right the whole way. I'm certainly not disagreeing with him. And I know that I always hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. And the worst would obviously be that it's going to be a long time to come up with a vaccine. Vaccines are very hard to do because remember you've got to get a person on a vaccine and then you got to give them something that could kill them is not something that medical profession is comfortable with.
Jim Cramer:
We also have had a very checkered history coming up with successful vaccines in terms of the care. I'd like to think that we can get people out of the hospital by creating some medicines that would make it so that the pneumonia would be, let's say, at least tamped down so that you can get people back home because when you stay in the hospital's when you die. I am, again, not hopeful near term, but hopeful longer term.
Josh King:
After the break, we celebrate 15 years and more of the career of Jim Cramer from the mean streets of Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, to the set of Mad Money in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. That's right after this.
Speaker 3:
And now a word from Calvin Choi, CEO of AMTD. NYSE ticker, HKIB.
Calvin Choi:
We are the first Hong Kong independent investment bank to list here. It's so unique coming here to list because we want to embrace internationalization. We want to go global. This is a global exchange. We want to embrace global connectivity. A is adventure. M is actually mission. T is actually a teamwork. D is a destination. NYC is our destination. AMTD now lists on the New York Stock Exchange.
Josh King:
Welcome back. Before the break, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money on CNBC, which this week celebrates its 15th anniversary on air, and I were talking about the current state of the market from coronavirus to the presidential campaign. We're now going to take a little trip back in time. Your mom was an artist, Jim, and your dad owned a business that sold paper products. What did they both teach you that we can see manifested on the set of your show today?
Jim Cramer:
Hard work and truth. My mom stood for the notion that if you work really hard in this country, you do well. And my father said, no matter what, even if it's a setback, you tell the truth. Interestingly enough, my father's business was wiped out by the Chinese. He sold boxes and bags that were made in America and all the mills that he represented closed because the Chinese targeted the gift wrap industry and targeted the bag industry. He ended up spending his last 20 years of his life, working for the Chinese who were quite graceful and respectful of my father. He sold bags to restaurants. He would sketch the logo of the restaurant and then go inside the restaurant and say, "Listen, I can make you a paper bag, not plastic." My father is very forward looking and it will have your name.
Jim Cramer:
And it will be the way to be able to people save the bag. And it turned out to be a boom. My father, in his late seventies, a very successful business of doing restaurant bags. And he did it, he had a very big month in the month of October 2014. And he died in November 2014. So at 92, talk about hard work. Amazing. It's been so long since my mom passed. It has been... It was 1985. She was in her mid 50s and she was indeed an artist. I remember her and I love her, but I've got to tell you. It is hard to think about. I remember her voice, but I would urge people by the way, if you have a relative, that is about to leave this earth, record their voice. So I could hear my mom in my head, but I miss her very much all the time, but I know that she favored the hard work that got me to where I am. And I thank you, mom.
Josh King:
You started selling stocks in the fourth grade. We had Stuart Frankel here in the library last year. His dad told him to start following and buying IBM to pay for a baseball jacket that he coveted at a local sporting goods store. You made enough money buying and selling stocks to pay your tuition at Harvard Law. What were the names you traded back then?
Jim Cramer:
Well, I had a very big position in Intel, which was terrific. Texas Instruments did very well for me. Monolithic Memories was a very good stock and I was able to catch a kind of a semiconductor revolution during the mid '80s. I was by the way, instrumental, I think in bringing Microsoft public when I went to Goldman Sachs, because my college roommate, my junior summer year was Steve Baumer and was able to prevail upon Microsoft to use Goldman Sachs. I didn't get any fee because I poached. I was not supposed to be in the Seattle territory. I have great chagrin about that company, Microsoft, would've gone to another firm and I am a competitive fellow and I should have been rewarded for it a long time ago.
Jim Cramer:
But yeah, I bought... What I have as an answering machine where I'd say, "I'm not here right now, but I think you should buy Monolithic Memories." And the way I got my start was that there was a wealthy individual who kept calling and calling to get ahold of me and then just said, "The hell with him. I'll call when he's not there, when he's at school." And he made a fortune off the instrument machine and gave me a check for $500,000 when he saw me.
Josh King:
Every show has a story of its founding. Don Hewitt launched 60 Minutes on the heels of producing the Kennedy Nixon debates. What did it take to get Mad Money off the ground?
Jim Cramer:
Well, this was a show that the previous management at CNBC did not like and told me would never happen. And then I was going to leave the network. And then the new CEO came in, Jeff Zucker, and Jeff said, "Wait a second. This is a good idea." Now, what did I propose that was rejected? Well, I said, "Look, I want to do a one man show about business." It's going to be like Johnny Carson, come out. I'm going to do a monologue and I'll do a skit. And then I'll interview some people and then I'll do another skit. And that will be the show. And the previous CEO's said that was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You'll never see that.
Jim Cramer:
And Jeff Zucker said, "You know what? We got to give this a try. We keep losing every time we start something at six o'clock it fails." And he said, "We got to give this a run." I said, "How much time do we have?" He said, "You've got a month to pull it together." And we did. And that's why we got it. My contract was up in the beginning of January. I went dark during the month of January. In February, we practiced. And in March we went on air and the rest is history.
Josh King:
You've got a Mad Money manifesto posted on cnbc.com in which you write, "For years I have been trying to help people like you, who own stocks and feel like they're on the outside looking in become better investors. That's the mission statement, plain and simple."
Jim Cramer:
Yeah, it sure is. I mean, I think that one of the things that's going to happen right now is that we've peaked when it comes to index investing. It's now 60%. I like indexes. I can't own individual stocks, but what we're starting... It's starting to Dawn on us that there are individual companies, some are better than others, that the idea of the S&P, which did not exist in 1984, I started trading in 1979, was a better world. And when you have faith in companies, rather than lack of faith in an index, then you are going to start making some money. And I think that view's been discredited by professors and by an industry that treats the people who watch my show as if they're idiots and infidels and they're anything but. They're the treasure of Mad Money.
Jim Cramer:
And Regina Gilgan, my executive producer, and I talk quite a bit about the idea that we have to get back to the concept of picking stocks, buying advanced micro because it's good buying at Costco. And just this indexing is really an effrontery, I think, to a lot of people who have kids that could have spotted Facebook or could have spotted Amazon and you shouldn't check your brains at the door, just because of the doctrine of indexing.
Josh King:
I mean, I watched your show last night. Talk about these kids. I watched the calls you took last night. There was a guy named Lee Senior, he put his son Lee Junior on the phone to talk about Electronic Arts. He's just a kid, Jim, two generations on a single call. Talk about the relationships you create with your viewers.
Jim Cramer:
Well, look, we're about the viewers. I've always felt that you cannot ever stray from the concept of who is watching because they are your real stakeholder. They're your bosses. And when we have generational calls like that, what it says is we could be in for a longer run than just 15 years. I'm proud of the fact that a lot of younger people do watch. We used to have a college tour that was very exciting. There's a group out there represented by Robinhood, which has 10 million clients, that say, "You know what? I'll do some indexing, but I really want to come up with the next Zoom video. I want to come up with the next Beyond Meat. I want to come up with the next Twitter, when it went down to 16 or Disney, when it's off 30 points from its high."
Jim Cramer:
And I encourage these people to do homework and if needed, watch the show, do some homework, get comfortable, or the old Peter Lynch method of investing, great mutual fund manager from Magellan, which is to take a look at... Have your eyes open, see things you like, and then dig down a little bit, be sure the company's got a good balance sheet and it's got good prospects and then buy it. Now that's become quaint old fashioned and discredited. And it is my mission to make it that the people who discredit it are revealed for the charlatans that I really think they are because when I'm at this great institution, the New York Stock Exchange, I recognize that these are companies. They're not just pieces of paper bundled together by greedy individuals who think that's the only way to invest. Do I have invective toward these people? No, my viewers do. And I represent my viewers, I think, strongly. And that's why I've been on for 15 years.
Josh King:
You end your manifesto saying, "I sometimes play a clown too. And I'm proud of it. I can't teach if you're not watching."
Jim Cramer:
I mean, look, I obviously am given to hyperbole. What I'm trying to say is I know I have to entertain to watch. I say at the beginning of the show it's about I'm going to entertain. I'm also going to educate and teach. And the reason I say it is because all the great educators I ever had made it interesting and made it amusing. Why? Because the actual matter is dry. And it's up to you to be able to keep people captivated. I think that the longevity of the show has to do with the fact that I try to keep people captivated any way I can. Have I played a clown? Of course. Is that undignified? Absolutely. Do I care? Well, 15 years says you bet I have to care in favor of the viewers' entertainment, so the viewer doesn't skip by the show.
Jim Cramer:
I am involved in a commercial enterprise. Those who are holier than thou, who think that they are not involved in commercial enterprise, are greatly mistaken and ill advised. I have to do what's necessary to get you to watch. And as long as I tell the truth, as my father said, then I'm doing a good job.
Josh King:
As much as you're working 19 hours a day, writing a lot of your scripts in the limo, no one accomplishes anything great by themselves. Your team was all around you on the podium at the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell from Regina on down the list to your colleagues at CNBC. What exemplifies the team effort?
Jim Cramer:
First 80% women. I abhor a lack of diversity. I think it's really important to point that out, that Regina Gilgan has sought to have the best. Now, what did the best turn out to be? Women. It is a meritocracy and I feel that women are discriminated against and that's something that we work hard to be able to change on Mad Money. Our team is a team that got my back at all times. The show would look quite different without them. My head writer and only writer is Cliff Mason, who happens to be my sister's kid. He started writing for us when he was in high school and said he wanted to get rid of all the other writers and he would do it himself. And he went to Harvard. He was a high energy physics major with a Latin and Greek minor, and that's not bad.
Jim Cramer:
And he has been our head writer the whole way. And I can't do the show without him. Ben Stoto, our research director. So many good people, Linda Dimion's fantastic. Heather Gaines, Katie Spencer. And of course, I want to thank Mark Hoffman, who was the person who not only has been our biggest supporter after Jeff Zucker left, but also the person who has felt that the heart and soul of our show is about the viewer and therefore it must be preserved. And I'm quite proud of that.
Josh King:
It's Friday, Jim. It's been quite a week. Once a year, at least thanks to you and your colleague, Brian Steel I unwind at Bar San Miguel, the restaurant you own in Brooklyn. When Friday comes around and the markets are closed for 48 hours, how do you unwind? What will you do this weekend?
Jim Cramer:
Mescal, Bar San Miguel got a whole new shipment of some stuff that I'm making. I'm making some juice that I think is going to be absolutely terrific called Fosforo, it is better than any other mescal I have at my bar. We've been sampling and people like it. Lisa Detwiler, my wife, was here to ring the opening bell with me. And she was certainly... She was in the audience, she wasn't part of the team. And she has not told me yet what we're doing. I know that I kind of get some weekends that I get to do things like with Dave Cody, the former CEO of Honey, where we'll go hunting and that's great. And then we had a birthday party for me, my 65th, not that long ago. All my friends are turning 65. I went to another one last week.
Jim Cramer:
I'm not sure what she has in mind, but she knows that I need some rest after this week. And the fact that I was optimistic at the opening bell on a day that was supposed to be horrendous, has to do with Mad Money and has to do with our viewers knowing that I have their back. And what that means is not getting fearful and not spreading a gospel that just says, "Get out now." Or that I'm a chicken little. We have people come on the network who are chicken littles. I don't want to call them out because they're very nice people who are on our network quite a bit. There's no reason to disparage them, but I urge people to recognize that there is always a bull market somewhere, and I'm going to find it for them.
Josh King:
There's always a bull market somewhere. It's always five o'clock somewhere. You've done a number of shows over the summer from the experience square right outside the New York Stock Exchange. I watched the connection you have with the passersby on the corner of Wall and Broad Street. It's like a block party. All you need is a little Jimmy Buffett. Can we get more of that this summer?
Jim Cramer:
Got to get Jimmy Chill because Jimmy Chill is somebody who is my alter ego that my daughter Cici came up with saying, "Listen, you got to chill. You got to be Jimmy Chill." And that is the one you see on the street. I do hope that we beat this coronavirus so I can give people the high fives that makes it so that it's so much fun. This shoulder sleeve thing really leaves me cold, but yes, those are people who watch the show and I'm proud that they come to the show every night. I'm proud that they enjoy the hunt for the next big stock. I'm proud that they're not totally brainwashed into just 100% index funds. I've always felt that index funds should be the bedrock and then you should put some of your Mad Money, hence the title, into stocks. That is something that has been discredited by people who look down on our audience and I've got our audience's back. And I know where you guys are, who are making our audience feel like they're idiots.
Josh King:
And they've got your back to Jim. You up for another 15 years of this?
Jim Cramer:
Yes. Absolutely. Unqualified.
Josh King:
Congratulations.
Jim Cramer:
Thank you very much.
Josh King:
That's our conversation for this week. Our guest was Jim Cramer, host for 15 years now of Mad Money, weeknights at 6:00 PM on CNBC. If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. And if you've got a comment or question you'd like one of our experts to tackle on a future show, email us at [email protected] or tweet at us @icehousepodcast. Our show is produced by Pete Asch with production assistance from Ken Abel and Steven Romanchik. I'm Josh King, your host, signing off in the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week. Booyah.
Speaker 1:
Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified, neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties express or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of clarity.
