Cramer Remix: Stocks for the next 25 years

Cramer Remix: Stocks for the next 25 years·CNBC

Jim Cramer has always been a proponent of long-term investing. With CNBC's 25th Anniversary celebration on Thursday, Cramer is not just thinking about investments for the next quarter. He's thinking about the next 25 years.

Specifically, what stocks given to an infant today could be used to pay down their college debt and make them money in the future?

To do that kind of investing, Cramer thinks that investors have to think big. He has three generational themes that he thinks will have to stand the test of future time.

First, is connection. That means social and mobile platforms that connect people. He thinks we have only just seen the early iterations of this with Facebook (FB), and Google (GOOGL).

Second, is internet commerce. This speaks to a Global eConomy, such as stocks like Alibaba (BABA). It will expand even further to get the job that Amazon (AMZN) does, but with less cost and faster delivery.

Third, is the ability to harness potential energy. Perhaps we could harness the sun to provide the power that we need. Cramer thinks Tesla (TSLA) is on the right track, and sees a car that runs on solar power, and plugs into an outlet at only a fraction of the cost of what consumers pay now.

With these three generational themes, Cramer sat down with five influential moguls of Wall Street, to get their take on leadership and where the economy is headed.



Between spending his early days as a runner for Bear Stearns , all the way back in 1955, creating one of the largest securities firms in America, and hand crafting Citigroup (NYSE:C), Sandy Weill has touched the way that Americans bank and live. Jim Cramer knows that Weill has a good perspective on the future of banking.

"I think the regulations are saying-that we can't think about banks the way we used to think about them. The regulators are not letting banks make mistakes. You can't risk the money, so our banks are really handcuffed on what they have an ability to do," said Weill.

Read More Sandy Weill: 'Banks aren't the same anymore'

Even the manner in which consumers will shop will change dramatically, Mastercard (MA) CEO Ajay Banga told Cramer.

"Technology will transform the [banking] sector. It's happening as we speak," Banga said. "Anybody who procrastinates in that place will lose."

Notably, Banga sees cybersecurity as a lingering concern, but he expects it will improve over the years as more platforms move toward biometrics and away from traditional passwords.

Read More Cramer, MasterCard CEO talk radical banking moves

As for the future of hiring, what better person for Cramer to turn to than Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz ?

This CEO is passionate about more things than just coffee. He is also passionate about nurturing leadership in the next generation, and hopes that many of the rising leaders will come from the military.

"I think we should demonstrate people who are entering civilian life from the military have extraordinary skills; leadership skills, integrity, unbelievable assets that we can apply to business. It's not charity, it's not pity; we just need to hire them," Schultz said.

Read More Cramer: Howard Schultz for president?

Cramer knows that Thomas Farley is the embodiment of the future. As President of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Group since the closing of the NYSE Euronext (:NYX) acquisition in November 2013, he has demonstrated the importance of strong leadership in a tough environment.

Schools all over the U.S. offer classes on topics such as wood work and auto mechanics, but not investing, so the question becomes how to educate future leaders on the importance of financial literacy.

Are there really that many people whittling wood in their spare time?

"The percentage of Americans that hold individual stocks is at a 16-year low. I think it's for two reasons: One, the market is very complicated. And two, we don't have enough financial literacy education," Farley said.

Likewise, Mellody Hobson, president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments and chair of DreamWorks SKG (DWA) also had a similar opinion.

Financial literacy should "start much earlier than college. I think you need to start in grade school and at the very minimum, in high school," Hobson said to the "Mad Money" host.

So what happened that people are so intimidated by the concept of investing?

The wheels nearly came off when the Great Recession hit and a lot of people are still spooked out, afraid to jump back into it, Hobson said.

Read More Cramer, market pro: US needs financially literate society

Advertisement