The interview you're never going to hear.
Q. How are you doing?
A. I've been better but, hey - to tell you the truth I'm doing just fine.
Q. Really?
A. Yes. I lost about 30% in my portfolio over the last year, which is about average but I've got all kinds of smart people helping me figure out what to do with my money. You know what they say, 'the rich get richer and the poor get poorer'? Well these are the days when the rich get poorer and the poor go broke. Which means of course that the broke starve. But really have you heard about anybody starving? I'm poorer but I'm just not quite as rich. It hurts like a boo boo, not like a broken leg.
Q. But didn't you lose millions?
A. Yes. I lost millions, but let me give you an analogy. When I lose millions, it's like Kobe Bryant only scoring 10 points in a game. I can have two losing seasons, but I'm still Kobe Bryant. In fact I can retire, but I'm still Kobe Bryant.
Q. But what about the banking system?
A. It's in deep and serious trouble, but a bank is, to continue the analogy, like saying the stadiums are falling apart. Yes. If all of the stadiums collapse, literally, at the same time, the NBA is doomed because there would be no place to collect the money for our performance. But that wouldn't kill basketball, it would go someplace else, and the best players will still be the best players. Sooner or later, new stadiums would be built.
Q. So you're saying what's done is done and you're fine.
A. Well, yes and no. I'm a business man. I'm interested in the future of American business. But I've already won the ordinary game. I'm playing a different game. Not the same game at a different level, but a different game. I'm just continuing to do what I do, but more on a historical scale. For me it's not about survival, it's about the history books. But like ordinary folks I'm interested in the future of the country. I don't want to be the last of my breed - I want others to be able to do what I've done.
Q. What are you getting at?
A. I'm a capitalist. But I understand how quickly people's sentiments can be turned against the sort of thing I've been doing. It's no good to be the last king of Russia, not only for your own skin, but for your children and the entire law and culture of what we've been doing. Imagine yourself being a millionaire during the LA Riots. The way you look at people rioting - burning down their own neighborhoods, and by the way the businesses you own. This is how I see the potential of certain populist ideas. It might seem obvious when you understand how people would hate the police when a few of them screw up and then a riot means the police can't do their job. And then it becomes obvious that the cops are outnumbered, it's impossible for police to do what they do when there's no trust in the police department. And you can see that people are hurting themselves when they become a mob. It's the same thing when people lose trust in CEOs and investors and the market itself. Really, the entire idea about what is good capitalism in the West is changing in the popular mind. There's going to be political overkill.
Q. Well how close are we to that happening?
A. Hard to say. Things can change quickly.
Q. What would you do then?
A. Same thing any reasonable human being would do. Go where there are no riots. Then come back even stronger if that opportunity exists or just write off the loss.
Q. Write off America?
A. America is what America is. I'm as sentimental about it as anybody. Even more, probably. But what happens to your neighborhood? If it's not the same as it was, if the values are not there in the people, then it's not the same neighborhood. It's the people you love - the relationships, not the place.
I don't want you to get the wrong impression. I think we're going to get through this. But some things will change in the popular consciousness. The idea of what's acceptable in America is changing.
Q. Well, we're out of time and I think this interview was a weird idea, which is why I didn't publish it.
A. That's OK. Just don't tell anybody I'm still rich OK?
Q. What's in it for me?
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