Modern Celebrity CEO Culture Began With Time Magazine Covers In The 1920s
Andrew Ross Sorkin · Andrew Ross Sorkin on Why 1929 is Happening Again · Oct 15, 2025 · at 4:28
Financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses historical parallels between 1920s financial figures and modern tech executives like Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
0:00 / 0:21exact quote · 21.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“This was also a period where all of these guys also became celebrities for the first time that happened in the 19 twenties when, you know, time magazine would put these guys on the cover the same way they'd put Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh on the cover. So sort of like what we see now, you know, whether you, Sam Altman or Elon Musk or whatever, that really, that whole kind of celebrity CEO that started then.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Andrew Ross Sorkin
Paul Tudor Jones Believes Current Market Resembles October 1999 Dot-Com Bubble
“I was talking to Paul Tudor Jones about a week ago, and he said, I was asking him this question about bubbles. He said, ah, I think we're in maybe like October, 1999. Right now. And I said, oh, that's interesting. Okay. 99. He said, but there's still, if you s…”
Andrew Ross Sorkin Compares 1920s Financier John Raskob To Elon Musk
“John Raskob is Elon Musk. I mean, I got to tell you, John Raskob Created credited General Motors became a amazing investor, then takes all of his winnings, decides to get into politics, a little Elon-like decides to back Al Smith against President Hoover. By t…”
Andrew Ross Sorkin Says Financial Markets Will Not Crash Just Yet
“Yeah it gets, it's a little nerve-wracking, but I don't think we're going off the cliff just yet, I hope.”
Speculative Investing Is Necessary To Drive Innovations Like Tesla And SpaceX
“You need some speculation in the system. Like, we always say speculation is a dirty word or a bad word, but, you know, the original investors in SpaceX or in Tesla who probably thought the whole thing was insane were speculating. And you need some of that. You…”
Excessive Leverage Is The Primary Accelerant For Systemic Financial Collapses
“Leverage is to me like the match that lights the fire every time when you have too much leverage in the system, that it, that is the problem. You can actually have a lot of crazy things happening. But it's the leverage that really exacerbates it and is the acc…”