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- He's CNBC's number one talent.
- You can't have an ugly,
bald guy screaming on TV!
- Host of two top-rated shows,
"Squawk on the Street" in the morning
and "Mad Money" at night.
- Truth to power.
- His huge and varied fan
base live by his mantra,
"There's always a bull market somewhere.
"I wanna help you find it."
His career has taken
him from cub reporter-
- When you're the first
person at a crime scene,
it's your story.
- To founder of thestreet.com.
He's also a bestselling
author and active investor,
and my favorite title, long-time friend.
- I am so excited to do this.
I've known you forever.
- I'm excited for Jim Cramer to join me
on "The Inflection Point."
Jim Cramer, it's so great
to have you with me today.
The one, the only. How are you?
- I am so excited to do this.
I've known you forever, and
I regard you as a confidant
but also as the co-writer
of an amazing book
that I've done a lot of thinking about
and actually moved my show
toward, "Trailblazer."
- That is great. Thank you.
Okay, let's go to what this show is about.
It's called "The Inflection Point,"
and that's a time when
all of us had something
that we experienced
when everything changed.
When was that moment for you, Jim?
- Well, mine was 9/11.
I had been running money, I
was a money manager, and I quit
and I really didn't know what
to do with myself, frankly,
because I didn't want to
be a money manager anymore,
(Monica chuckles)
but I had lost a sense
of purpose, frankly.
I was taking my kids to
school, and coaching,
and doing all the things that you do
that you really enjoy that matter in life,
but I didn't really have a job.
And I was called to
comment about 9/11 on CNBC,
and I was stunned.
I happen to have an
office at thestreet.com,
which was down the block
from the World Trade Center.
I made my way to the studio the next day,
and I was talking on a panel
about how the people who we
lost and what had occurred.
And someone asked me, "How
about some stocks to buy?"
- (laughs) Uh-huh.
- And I said, "Excuse me?"
I mean, I knew I'm a
dollar sign represented
by a man, Monica,
I totally accept that
people ask me on the street
about stocks, but it just did not seem
to be the right thing to do.
And then I was pressed
on it, basically saying,
"Jim, I mean, come on, you're a stock guy.
"Do you buy General
Dynamics? What do you buy?"
And I said, "I don't feel
comfortable doing this."
And I walked off the set,
which is something, of course,
that means it's the end of your career
if you ever had a career on TV.
And I got a call that night from the boss,
and I told Karen Cramer,
"I'm not taking it,"
and he called back.
He said, "No, I really
gotta speak to Jim."
And I got on and said,
"Yeah, what? You know. Yeah, what?"
He said, "Did you mean what you did today
"when you walked off?"
I said, "Absolutely, I did.
"How insulting to the lives of
the people, to the families,
"then here I am supposed to have come up
"with Lockheed Martin?"
And he said, "How would
you like a TV show?"
I said, "Like a TV show?"
(Monica chuckles)
He said, "We have had
a parade of people on
"who had no emotion whatsoever.
"You're the only guy who
came on and was furious,
"ripped off the mic.
"We're sitting here talking
about making money.
"How wrong is that?
"And the guy who's most
known for making money
"is the guy who can't take it.
"So I wanna give you a show."
I said, "You can't have an
ugly, bald guy screaming on TV!"
(Monica laughs)
And they gave me a show,
and I've gotten the bug
and I've been doing it
now, this is my 22nd year,
and I love TV.
When that red light goes
on, I'm still so excited.
I just love it,
and everybody laughs
because they think I'm like a
nine-year-old when it starts,
but that was my Inflection Point.
'Cause whoever let me have a show?
I mean, I was just gonna be a schmo,
and suddenly, I had a show.
- And look at "Mad Money."
It's the top-rated evening show on CNBC.
You're the co-anchor of
"Squawk on the Street,"
which is also the number
one show in the morning.
You're CNBC's number one star.
So it's a good thing they
took the big bet on you,
the bald guy, who at the time was chubby.
Now you're not. You're
looking great, my friend.
- I'm like thinking,
all the things you said,
she said, "I look great."
I mean, vanity is speaking to me.
(Monica laughs)
- But look, you do have a lot to say,
people wanna hear what you have to say.
- I'm gonna say some things,
and you're gonna get crimson in the face.
But Marc and you have a manifesto,
and the manifesto-
- Well, it's really Marc.
It's Mark vision, Marc
Benioff, my CEO at Salesforce.
- Well, and the book is about how business
is a source of social
change, of great change.
And I've had to pivot
and do far more about
what younger people want
because younger people wanna know first,
is the CEO a good person?
Is the company dedicated
to saving the Earth
or to helping people
who are less fortunate?
And if it is,
then I'm willing to
entertain owning the stock.
- Well, it's not just "Trailblazer,"
the book that Marc wrote,
but it's also your own daughter.
Your own daughter had gave you
some crap about this, right?
She's like, "Dad! Get with the program."
- It was a rather rough exchange.
And I'm gonna say, at the
beginning, I've patched things up.
I think that's important.
I patched things up this morning. (laughs)
But you know, my daughter,
my eldest has always felt
that I'm pretty soulless.
And she says that I don't
address the big issues.
She says I just try to talk about
what stock's gonna go higher,
and I said, "Well, that's my job."
She says, "That's not your
job. That's your old job.
"Your new job now that you've
reached senior statesman
"is to truth to power 'cause
no one's gonna fire you.
"And if they do, it's an even better story.
(Monica laughs)
"So give me your guest list."
So the first week, she's not interested.
The second week, she sees Dow Chemical.
And she says, "Dad, you have
the CEO of Dow Chemical,
"and that's a company I'm
intensely interested in."
And I'm like, oh, boy.
- Oh, gosh. That's a little
bit of pressure from daughter.
- Well, Cece's tough.
The interview goes on.
- Oh, boy.
- So
I said, "Okay."
And I said, "And by the way,
I have a question suggested
"by my daughter because of the
fact that you make plastic."
And he said, "Sure, what is that?"
And I said, "How can
you live with yourself?"
(Monica laughs)
And he's a great guy.
And he said, "Excuse me?"
I said, "Well, you know
that island of plastic
"in the Pacific?
"That's got your name on it. That's you.
"So my daughter asks, 'How
can you live with yourself?'"
And that was the end of the interview.
- Wow.
Jim, your daughter said to you,
you've gotta speak truth to power.
But think about 9/11,
you spoke truth to power.
I mean, in reality,
when you said, "Let's not talk
about making money today."
So I disagree with your daughter
that you have been speaking truth to power
from way back when you started on TV.
That's my point of view.
- Thank you.
The fact is the way I
phrased it was, in many ways,
something that changed my way I do TV.
And I got a lot of comment
from people who said,
"Thank God you're not just a dollar.
"Thank God you really are someone."
And I went back
to my "Mad Money" executive
producer, Regina Gilgan.
I said, "You know, I think
we're doing these shows wrong.
"I think when we have someone
who's hurting the environment,
"we have to ask them what they're doing."
I said, "Maybe we never
get another oil company on.
"But every oil company, we're
gonna ask about pollution,
"about methane, about carbon capture."
And sure enough, a lot of the
oil companies disappeared.
I always had to do oil companies,
and they don't wanna come on anymore.
But you know what? Monica, that's okay.
They don't wanna come on? Tough.
I have to ask these questions,
and I am getting answers that
sometimes shock you positively
and sometimes make you feel like,
wow, you can't own that stock.
No matter how much you like
it, how much they make,
they're not doing the right thing.
And I love the new, the way we pivoted
because I think the
people like my daughter
are gonna inherit the Earth,
and you better start not being a dinosaur.
Maybe the older people don't wanna hear
about the island of plastic,
but the younger people
never go buy Dow Chemical.
They're never gonna own it no matter what.
They wanna know what is that CEO doing
about small business?
How's that CEO helping minorities?
And so I start getting this
list of companies like Etsy
that are empowering people.
And now these people have businesses
that are actually quite substantial.
And that's what I wanna talk about.
Now you know who else is like that?
- I'm not gonna say. You tell me.
- Dreamforce. Dreamforce.
- And when you are here at Dreamforce,
it's like you're the pied piper.
All the people want, and
go like, touch Jim Cramer.
Get a stock tip from Jim Cramer.
Get a picture with Jim Cramer.
Let's go back to the
beginning for a second
about when you did start
and got your own show
because there's not a
show like "Mad Money."
- I write the show with
my nephew, Cliff Mason.
And one day George Carlin
calls, the late George Carlin.
And he's saying, "Listen,
your stuff is perfect.
"Your timing is off."
- Hm.
- "When you have this,"
and he gave an example of what I had said,
"You gotta pause.
"You just gotta stop, and you
count a beat in your head.
"And wait till you see the difference."
So then I would do it.
And he goes, "You are so on track."
So then Gene Hackman,
who I happen to know
from money management,
says, "Look, the show is good,
"but we have to take it to the next level."
I said, "Well, what are you gonna do?"
He goes, "I'm gonna watch it for a week,
"and I'm gonna critique it every night."
I said, "Well, fine."
He goes, "But here's the thing,
"I'm gonna watch it from the set.
"I'm not gonna watch it at home."
And every night, it was so brutal.
- Brutal?
- Oh, my God, he hated so
many things I was doing.
And one of the things he said was,
"The pen, lose the damn pen.
"You have the pen in your
hand. I want that pen.
"That's how we're gonna get started-"
- They want me to lose my mouse,
but it's my security blanket.
- Well, Geno said,
"The pen's gone."
And then Geno says, "The
whole stooped-over thing, no.
"Straight."
And then he starts with the,
"Will you look at the camera?
"You look away from the
camera, you look very shifted.
"But I need a level of crazy, zany energy.
"And if you can't bring it, cancel the show
"because it's a show about
a topic that is ridiculous
"to have a one-man show
about, about stocks.
"It's crazy.
"But you've got to be crazy,
"because if you're crazy,
it's gonna come off,
"believe it or not, on camera as sane.
"You're gonna make an excitement.
It can be Carson! You
can be Johnny Carson!"
And then I knew.
I knew.
- And you wanted
to be Johnny Carson.
- I knew that I
could be Johnny.
- You kinda wanted to be Johnny Carson
'cause your dad loved Johnny Carson,
you all grew up watching it together.
- Carson is alive somewhere.
That's what my father told
me. Carson will never die.
And Johnny had the greatest timing ever.
Now there have been so
many great ones since then.
And the younger audience
is probably saying,
"Who is this guy, Carson?"
But Carson was about timing,
and my show has to be about timing.
There was a book about Johnny
that was written a couple years ago.
And every night at the end of every show,
he went to a bar on
10th Avenue in New York,
and he drank himself to death every night
'cause he was so angry at how bad he was.
So we go over our show every night,
and my nephew who's a
genius, he writes stuff in
where the other night, he had me say,
"You know what? I'm not perfect.
"As a matter of fact, I crave attention.
"And I need you to tell
me that you love me."
I was like, "I can't say that."
He goes, "Oh, no, no. Truth, say it."
And so I said, "You know,
I'm a deeply flawed person.
"I need you to tell me that you love me."
And I just put that in
at the same time that,
"I think you should be
buying the stock of NVIDIA."
(Monica laughs)
- This is crazy.
You do have a little crazy in you.
It wasn't just Gene Hackman
who told you to be crazy.
- I'm not gonna disagree with
that, nor is my pharmacist.
- Okay. (laughs)
All right, now let's talk
about the drinking issue
of Johnny Carson because, actually,
you had your own drinking issue
long, long ago in your life.
Let's go way back
before you became the
superstar you are today
to when you had no money.
- Sure, first of all, I get
down to I couldn't get a job.
I did a speech at Bucknell,
a commencement address a couple years ago,
and I brought all 57 rejection letters
from all the newspapers that rejected me
when I graduated from college.
And I said, "Most of these
are closed. I'm still here."
(Monica laughs)
I finally got a job, I
was living with my aunt,
I got a job at the Tallahassee Democrat.
It was a dead-end job,
I was covering Florida State football.
It was just total dead end.
(Monica chuckles)
But at the end of the
block, it's very sad,
Ted Bundy, it was the
Chi Omega sorority house,
and Ted Bundy killed these girls,
and I was the first person there.
And you know, Monica, when
you're the first person
at a crime scene, it's your story.
- That's correct.
- And I had national
recognition from the story.
And not that long after,
the "L.A. Herald Examiner,"
which I sent them a letter with my clip,
said, "We want you to cover everybody
"who's dying violently in California."
And I was young, was doing stupid things,
I was 23, and I said, I want that job.
So I get out to California.
And the thing you have to
recognize is that's a night job.
The homicides are at night.
That's when people kill each other.
So I had a night job,
and I would usually get
off around 7:00, 8:00 a.m.
And I know this sounds strange,
but when you're off work, you drink.
That's what happens.
Hey, I'll have a drink.
So I was the guy that you would
see drinking Jack Daniel's
at 7:00 and 8:00 a.m.
because I was off my shift.
And then I was evicted,
so I was living in my car.
So then I really kind
of fell off the grid,
and wherever there was a crime,
I would drive to in my car.
When you're in your car and
it's cold, I had a hatchet,
I had the gun,
(Monica chuckles)
and I had the bottle of Jack Daniel's,
And I loved Jack Daniel's.
So you know that's what you would do.
You would go in the back,
and you'd move your underwear and stuff,
and you'd lie back, and you'd drink.
(Monica chuckles)
And the next thing I know,
I've got a gigantic yellow
stain on my stomach,
And I go to the clinic, and
the guy, the doctor there,
this guy, he's like first
in his class at Yale,
that kinda thing, and
he says, "Do you drink?"
And I say, "Now and then."
And he said, "Well, when is now and then?"
I said, "Now, before I came here,
"and then after I leave here."
And he said, "That's a jaundice liver.
"How much do you really drink?"
I said, "I don't know, bottle a day."
He said, "Okay, you're done drinking."
I said, "Well, no,
(laughs) I'm not drinking.
"That's what I do.
"I drink after work, and
I drink before work,
"and I drink during work."
And he said, "Well, that's
over 'cause you're gonna die."
And I said, "When can I drink again?"
He said, "Well, that's
an interesting attitude.
"That's great that you
have that persistence
about drinking."
(Monica laughs)
I was down and out.
I went back and lived with my sister
at her studio apartment,
and she kept liquor out of the place.
And it took a couple
years, and I got clean.
And then after that, I kinda
didn't wanna drink that much.
- And you cleaned yourself up.
Then you went, from there, did
you go to Harvard Law School?
- Yeah, my sister said, "Listen,
"you gotta make something of yourself,
"and you gotta get off my goddamn couch
"'cause I have a studio apartment
"and I wanna have a social life, too.
(Monica laughs)
"And I've taken care
"of you enough.
"You're not drinking. You're good."
So I got into Harvard,
and I got a good job there
where they gave me room and board.
And I went to some Goldman thing one day
'cause there was free shrimp.
And a guy comes up to me
and says, "Who are you?"
And I said, "Well, I'm Jim Cramer."
He goes, "What are you doing here?"
I said, "Well, I wanna work at Goldman."
And he said, "All right,
then tell me about a stock."
I said, "I think you should buy Exxon.
"It's 12 times earnings. Got a 4% yield.
"It's easy coverage of the dividend.
"It's gonna probably come out
"with 2 million barrels more
than it should each day.
"And I think that this is the stock
"to own for the next decade."
And it was.
And then I proceeded to
try to get a job there
for the next five months.
But I got the job, and
I absolutely loved it.
I did it for a while, and it was great.
- And that's when I met you,
I think, in the mid '80s
is when you were at Goldman,
and I was new at "The
Wall Street Journal."
Thank goodness, I was a
reporter for 27 years,
and I didn't drink and
live in my car, though.
It wasn't the road to disaster
for me that it was for you.
Now let's talk about the
big star you are today
and you do make an impression on everyone,
but with your big platform
comes a big target.
How do you handle that?
Because some criticism does come your way.
- A lot of times, it's very hard.
I'm gonna give you the classic one.
I happen to be friends
with Speaker Pelosi.
Her grandson and my son were
roommates at Georgetown.
- Oh, wow.
- So I got to meet her, and
I think she's spectacular.
And she used to come on
the show all the time,
and it was a great privilege.
There was a time when I got so sick
of Trump saying, "Crazy Nancy,"
that I decided I was going to take him on
and attack him by saying,
"How horrible is it
"to be called 'Crazy Nancy?'"
She said, "Well, what do you think?
"You just called me Crazy Nancy."
I said, "Oh, my God, Madam
Speaker, I'm really sorry.
"No, I'm trying to show that the
president shows disrespect."
And she said, "Well, you
think it's respectful
"to say Crazy Nancy on air?"
And I'm like, I considered
her to be my friend,
and I realized, I said, "Oh,
my God, I apologize again."
But I realize I'm done. I'm dead.
I'm just dead 'cause I used the term.
Well, I have been dead ever since.
I called her privately, and said,
"Look, my goal was to try to defrock Trump
"and put to an end this
horrible thing that he says
"about a person who should
be completely respected
"for her whole life being
in public service."
But I never recovered from it.
It was a special relationship,
and I blew it up.
And a lot of the younger people here
at CNBC were furious at me.
On Twitter, there were people
calling me pig and horrible.
And I screwed up. I just screwed up.
But I had to take my
lumps, and I took them.
I took them, and I'm masochist enough
to be able to look at
every single criticism.
And I'm not saying it broke my heart.
Here I am, I put my suit
on, I put my shirt on,
but I can't be like
Superman in that first movie
where I can pull the eight seconds back,
and I can't get it back.
- And you know, you're still
just as emotional about it.
It happened quite a long time ago.
- She knows I love her.
- Okay, Jim, this might be
asking you the impossible,
but I know that you don't
mind looking in crystal balls.
- Not at all.
- So what do you think
the future holds for business?
Where do you see us
going now out of COVID?
- Well, I don't know
if it will necessarily go back to normal
'cause I think that a lot of
people feel that normal sucked.
It turned out that there were aspects
of the non-normal that were great,
including working at home,
which turned out to be really fabulous
'cause you spend time with
your spouse or your kids.
Being on the road turned
out to be soulless,
and we don't wanna do it nearly as much.
We ended up liking cooking
(Monica laughs)
more than we thought.
- Some did. I still don't. (laughs)
- And it's a very simple lifestyle
that I've developed during
the pandemic, very simple.
But in terms of business,
I think that President
Biden has a unique sense
of what needs to happen.
Whatever happened before
was Marx Brothers, okay?
It was just Marx Brothers.
It was that crazy.
And now I think that we're very well-run.
It was supposed to be the
business president before.
No, that was just "The Apprentice,"
and pitting people against each other
and embarrassing this guy.
And now, there's no embarrassment.
There's people, really good people,
that are coming to the fore who
want to try to make changes,
including, by the way, oil companies
when it comes to climate change,
companies that are trying
to do the right thing
when it comes to minority
empowerment, banks that feel like
that maybe we ought to
get more on the case
and trying to make it so that
more people are embraced.
I think the inclusion
of people in our country
is going to create a boom.
It's not just the end of the pandemic.
I think we have a President
who recognizes who's in our
country and the greatness.
And the greatness is gonna
make it so people stop hiding,
lots of people are gonna get more jobs,
and the country's going to shock people.
I believe, and I've told
this to Marc Benioff,
that maybe January 6th
was the high-water mark
of hate in this country.
A lot of people feel it
was the beginning of hate.
I think it was the
high-water mark of hate.
- Wow.
- And Marc said, "Jim,
"maybe you're being a little pollyannish."
And I said, "Marc, you could
be right, but I am a believer."
And he said, "God bless
you. I hope you're right."
We have to solve this gig economy issue.
These people don't have healthcare.
That is the last thing that we have to do
in the fourth industrial revolution.
We have got to get everybody healthcare
'cause that's how people are wiped out.
But I am very optimistic about
the tenor of our country.
And the tenor of our country
is gonna produce bountiful
belief in our country,
and therefore, a belief that
people can become anything,
anyone they want.
And that's what's been
lacking for so long.
So call me...
I'm not a pollyanna. I'm a tough guy.
I've gone through a lot,
whether it be when I had the gun
and I had the Jack Daniel's,
not exactly a good combo with the gun,
(Monica laughs)
to the jobs that I look forward
to all the craziness and
things that I've said
that I shouldn't have.
I'm a deeply flawed guy, Monica,
but in the end, I'm quite
positive about the country.
- Well, on that positive note,
I wanna thank you, Jim, for joining us.
And it's always fun to be with you.
And it's no wonder you're
the top-rated star on CNBC.
Thank you for being with me today.
- Oh, I love you, Monica.
Thank you.
- Thank you so much.
- Bye-bye.
- Join me next time on
"The Inflection Point."
I'll chat with Darius
Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell.
What is it like then
day-to-day being the CEO?
- You own the decisions as CEO,
and you have to be both confident
and humble the same time.
- Your transformation is so radical.
- We took a very sharp
pivot in early 2020.
And rather than feeling
sorry for ourselves,
we started to innovate.
It's a bit of a cliche, but
it's certainly been true for me,
which is I've learned so much more
from my setbacks than my success.
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You don’t need to be a Salesforce customer to watch Salesforce+. Our virtual learning is open to everyone.
