What’s Mark Cuban’s financial outlook for life post-COVID19?

It’s a brutal time for small business, but if you can outlast your competitors you’ll be in a much stronger position when COVID-19 passes.

The cost of customer acquisition via social media channels has dropped significantly. That means now is a great time to spend on advertising. If you’re feeling confident, and you can afford to, go for it.

The education landscape is about to change radically, with many schools shutting down. If you’re about to go to university, now is the time to rethink everything. This will be your biggest investment for the next 10-15 years, so take your time and consider different options.

When the market improves in 3-5 years, we’ll look back at COVID19 and see that some great companies got their start during this tough time. Having access to cash now gives people like Cuban a great opportunity to invest in them.

Now is also a great time to invest in real estate – especially in dense urban areas like New York where condo prices are already plummeting. Lots of commercial property will eventually be available at a steep discount, as many businesses will lose all their leverage.

The value of commodities is likely to go up and there should be at least some inflation. Companies will begin to protect their own in terms of manufacturing, with a focus on core needs domestically.

The only way America can bring back more manufacturing jobs from overseas is to out-innovate other countries in terms of robotics. It wouldn’t see a return of the old assembly lines, but it would raise aggregate employment through related fields like software engineering and support.

Forbearance plans will cause such a drastic reduction in tax revenue that the tax system will need to be reconsidered. This may be the time to start taxing the likes of robotics and cloud computing, then pumping that money back into social security and further robotics research.

The 2009 bailouts didn’t cause the inflation many expected, but it’s too early to tell what will happen as a result of the 2020 bailouts. Yet what’s happening now is a great experiment for the benefit of future generations. It will teach us so much about monetary and fiscal policy.

Capitalism will need to be more compassionate post-COVID19. That means putting employees first and shareholders last. That will only be good for business because how you treat people is what defines your brand permanently.