Home Depot co-founder: 'We desperately need to fix leadership in this country'
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ก.พ. 2019
- JULIA LA ROCHE: Great to see you, Ken. Who better to discuss if the American dream is alive and well than Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot, the chairman of Invemed Associates. Ken is the grandson of Italian immigrants, he grew up on Long Island, and he comes from humble beginnings. As a kid, he worked various jobs from a caddy to a ditch digger.
His parents worked hard to send him to college at Bucknell University, where he studied economics. And after Bucknell, he did two years in the US army. He then made a name for himself on Wall Street. 50 years ago this month, when he was 33 years old, he took Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems public, his first IPO.
And Ken and his wife are well-known philanthropists, especially here in New York City at NYU Langone Medical. He is the author of the best selling book, "I Love Capitalism." Ken, thank you so much for joining us.
KEN LANGONE: Thank you for having Me.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Well, Ken, we do have to talk about your book, since you are this author of this book that's a bestseller now. So I have a very important question for you.
KEN LANGONE: Go ahead.
JULIA LA ROCHE: All right. So last month, a recent Gallup poll came out that showed that more young people are holding a positive view of socialism, and their views of capitalism are at a decade low. So what is your reaction to that?
KEN LANGONE: I think it's natural that this group-- their first taste or their first knowledge of capitalism was the collapse in 2008. They were 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. So capitalism did not present itself very well. But that wasn't capitalism. That was a system that's gone amok. Run amok. And, you know, there's an old saying, there's plenty of blame to go around.
I think the financial regulation thing was Dodd-Frank. That was a big guy that was going to clean the mess up. I would remind you that Barney Frank, about nine years before that, was saying it was an inherent American right to everybody to own a home. And it was that mentality-- I'm not suggesting he did it all by himself. But it was that mentality that allowed the insanity to spread.
So as I said-- and give Wall Street credit for one thing. If you give them an opening on how to make money, they'll take advantage of it. That's-- that's the way the system works. Sometimes for the good, sometimes not. So I understand their bias based on that period of time.
But I would argue to any of them, I'll put you in my plane and I'll fly you down to Venezuela, and let's see how good socialism is doing down there. Or Cuba, or any place you want to name. Capitalism is like anything else in life. Too much of anything is no good. I think we need to be conscious of our obligations and our responsibilities.
But the one statistic that matters to me more than anything else relative to the Home Depot, entry level job at the Home Depot is pushing carts in the parking lot and helping customers load their cars up, hopefully with enormous amounts of merchandise.
We have 3,000. They started out as 18. Barely out of high school. Weren't going to college. We had 3,000 of them. They're multimillionaires today. And if you want a testimony to capitalism, talk to any one of those 3,000 people.
JULIA LA ROCHE: Well, Ken, when you do have conversations-- I'm taking it that you've visited some of these young folks and you have talked about your book. What are you hearing from them, though? I know you have this message of capitalism, but what are you hearing? What are their frustrations?
KEN LANGONE: Thank god that generation has a great sensitivity for other people. And that's good. The hurt and pain that's out there, we all should be doing something about. And I commend them for that. But I urge you, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I'll only give you a benchmark.
If you took every single nickel I've spent, or my wife and I have spent, which really adds a number up when you include her, OK? Because she's a spender, not a shopper, all right? God bless her.
finance.yahoo.com/news/langon...
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Mr Langone an inspiration!
Yahoo keep up the great work. Julia, thank you for letting your guests talk and talk I love your style!
Amazing!!!! Thank you so much Mr. Langone and Yahoo Finance.
Need to fix leadership at Homedepot. Customers seem to be the last and least important concern.
Go to every medical corner of the city... and you will find people who have to declare bankruptcy on medical expenses.
We had a President of These United States throw out the baby with the bathwater in 1933 with the issuance of Executive Order#6102. That... did not go through Congress in order to get approval of we the people.
Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution says, “No State shall... make any Thing but Gold and Silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts”
I wish he would have talked about that.
Jimmy Richards or talk about the 94% tax rate on incomes $200,000 or more during his childhood in the U.S.
End the fed!
As someone who worked at one of the flagship HD locations (SCTY - FES), I firmly stand that Home Depot is one of the best companies, both culturally and technically, I have ever seen.
He grew up in an America that taxed 94% rate on incomes larger than $200,000. That equates tob$2.4 million today.
This guy never heard of the military industrial complex....
100% common sense from this legend!!!!1
That brotha's sock game is on point. But he's an idealist. The country has went to war with a lot of it's own citizens, and it continues to do so. He says, 'Wanna complain? Beat it!'
Precisely. He is kind and full of shiny memories about his golden American Dreamtime. But today's America is very much CORRUPTED. The bigs are eating on the smalls, and just because SOME biggies do something for SOME smallies, it doesn't meant that the state of things is satisfactory and laudable.
Realism and pragmatism are more productive than this sort of nostalgic-inertia. This old generation of politicians and businessmen needs to step aside and let the youngster pave their own narratives.
He should work for Hallmark..
How come nobody in your stores knows how to make a frigging key???!!!!!!!!???😮😮
Another finance guy on wall street who made his dough thru leverage and monopoly.
Private "donors" have got that cash through the efforts of the workers..... Its not created by magic.
The share of productivity improvement to workers has fallen for 40 years hence the wealth transfer and "exploitation" with LESS than 1 % owning most of the wealth now ( I think its 1 tenth of 1 % ).
The system is structurally failing us all, we are feed debt to maintain ourselves which is reaching the point we are drowning in debt now ( private debt not government ).
How did this happen? well its hard to think this was not by design yet whats the plan for the next period? we are wage slaves controlled by debt and the wealthy run the show in concentrated forms all the way to the top.
The heart of it is banking and debt creation ! the second part is wage control and employment exploitation.
@Tarzan ty, the people support the comment above, and they are complete idiots.
I agree with Ken 100%....a brilliant ambassador.
I praise and worship the rich so one day maybe I’ll be in their club🤷♂️🙄🤦♂️
She is fine
Gabbard/Sanders or Sanders/Gabbard ~ I am INDEPENDENT and ready to move on for 2020. Voted for Trump but he has NOT drained the swamp......EX: Reappoint COMEY = No!..........But thanks Pres. Trump for NOT giving us HRC! ..and hope Jimmy Dore as next White House Press Sec! Dean K.
All you have to do is talk to employees of home depot.
OH, now you think it needs to be fixed? Replacing American products with "cheap" Chinese products tells us how caring you really are.
Very smart man
She knows how to sit
If this guy believes that what has come to be known in the US as democratic socialism is the same as what is going on in Venezuela at the moment then I am curious if he would be upset about receiving ice cubes for dessert instead of Italian ice.
He also seems to imply that the ultra wealthy donate a larger percentage of their incomes to philanthropic organizations without acknowledging how much lower income people also donate or acknowledging why lower income people wouldn't donate more if they had more to give.
He makes some decent points and offers some interesting platitudes but ultimately he seems a bit out of touch with what people are really upset about. He also seems oblivious to the fact that N. Korea continues to do what it was doing before trump gave them what they wanted, trump hasn't drained any swamps, or that many foreign cars are made in the US. He complains about China stealing intellectual property without acknowledging the owners of it utilizing China's cheap labor and lax regulation to manufacture it. The country has changed a lot since the time when he gained greatly and he has clearly not kept up.
That's quite an introduction. I bet he wrote it for her to read. The guy has a giant ego. When he is on CNBC, I turn the channel.
Wisdom means the art of living well. :) this was good and solid use of my time
"Trump is better than the last 5 idiots we had in office" Ok cool let me count them: Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush.. Reagan.... He hates Reagan too! Must be a Nixon guy.
Daniel Asmis Reagan opened the floodgates for illegals with his amnesty. Instead of two million, we’ve got nearly 40 million and counting...I’ll never forgive him for that. That’s the #1 reason wages have been flat ever since.
Somebody share this video with Trump
As soon as people start to tell me what language to speak and to leave the America if I don't think it's perfect. I stop listening.
Too bad he is no longer there,homede has gone in toilet ever since the new manager taken over,l never shop there any more@
Great to see someone in the business world who isn't afraid to show his support of Trump.
Another billionaire who has aspirations president ....maybe ?