Mark Cuban On Why The Government Should Directly Hire Millions Of People

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:16)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

Tracy, so obviously on this podcast, we speak with mostly, I would say, either economists or sort of like market practitioners in one way or another, traders, investors, and so forth.

Tracy Alloway (0:32)

Yeah, or some policy makers sometimes.

Joe Weisenthal (0:35)

That's true, we also speak with policy makers. But it's interesting because I realize we don't really, and maybe we should fix it, maybe we should address it.

We don't really speak with that many people who are actually engaged in sort of what people would call business. I mean, trading, investing, building, fintech companies, et cetera, is a business. But in terms of the day-to-day business of running actual things, consumer operations, making payroll in a crisis, that has not been typically a big area for us.

Tracy Alloway (1:10)

No, we sort of talk about the economy from a theoretical level. And of course, the economy is comprised of people and businesses and people who run businesses. And we probably should be talking to them.

Joe Weisenthal (1:22)

Yeah, and especially right now, of course, in the midst of this crisis, because again, we talk about all these things like payroll protection policies and what kind of stimulus would be good to get the economy roaring again once the acute health crisis passes.

But again, there are people who actually have to make the decision. People actually have to go out and hire, people who have to go out and sort of reinvest in new things in the world. And obviously, the degree to which they're inclined to do that is going to be quite determinative of what kind of recovery we can expect to see.

Tracy Alloway (2:02)

Yep, absolutely. So we are talking to a business person today, yes?

Joe Weisenthal (2:08)

We are. We're talking to, we're going to talk to a very well-known business person today, a very outspoken person, someone who is sort of had lots of thoughts on policy, all kinds of things related to the crisis and so forth.

No reason to have any spoilers or further clearing. We're going to be speaking today with Mark Cuban. He is the owner of the NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks. Lots of people know him from the show Shark Tank and his investing in startups. Very active on Twitter and social media in terms of fleshing out and sounding out policies right now during this crisis. Also someone who people suspect may have political ambitions of his own one day.

And so sort of great person to discuss everything that's going on right now.

Tracy Alloway (3:01)

I would like to preface this entire interview by saying that I know nothing about basketball or the NBA, but I'm gonna try really, really hard.

Joe Weisenthal (3:10)

All right, well, let's bring in Mark.

Mark, thank you very much for joining us. Mark, what's the deal? Tracy was just asking this on Twitter. Can you give us the 30 second explanation of how the NBA salary cap works? Tracy was trying to cram, doing some homework before the podcast, and so it's like, how does that work? She wants to know.

Mark Cuban (3:30)

I'd rather calculate pie digits than try to explain the salary cap.

Joe Weisenthal (3:34)

Okay, well, fair enough. Anyway, thank you for joining us.

As we've been doing throughout all of our episodes during this crisis, I wanna make a note that it is May 12th today, and the reason that's important is because who knows how the world will look in a few days when this comes out. But it is, here we are, May 12th, about really two months into this crisis in its most intense form, because it was actually March 11th, the day that the NBA was canceled. So two months in, Mark, just from your perspective, all the different things you're involved in, how does the world look to you right now, sort of big picture and with the businesses that you operate and invest in?

Mark Cuban (4:17)

Uncertain, confused, cautiously hopeful, looking for guidance, looking for leadership. We just don't know who to trust with our lives effectively.

And that's keeping people from doing things the way we've always done them.

Tracy Alloway (4:32)

So you invest in a lot of small businesses. Could you maybe give some specifics about how your portfolio companies are getting impacted right now? What are the biggest problems that they're currently facing?

Mark Cuban (4:45)

The biggest problem is the fall in demand. There's just people are very hesitant when it comes to buying products and services right now, unless they're related to things you can store in your home. The companies I have that are selling athletic equipment, those are doing well. Companies that are selling food products, those are doing well. Companies that are selling pretty much everything else are not or their business is down some percentage.