Investor who predicted 2008 monetary disaster says he’s ‘frightened about one thing worse than a recession’ – NBC Los Angeles

Ray Dalio, the founding father of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, stated he’s “frightened about one thing worse than a recession” if President Donald Trump doesn’t correctly deal with tariffs and different financial insurance policies.
“I believe that proper now we’re at a decision-making level and really near a recession,” Dalio stated on NBC Information’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And I am frightened about one thing worse than a recession, if this is not dealt with effectively.”
Dalio’s feedback got here in response to a query from moderator Kristen Welker about whether or not the U.S. would seemingly dip right into a recession due to Trump’s tariff insurance policies.
Dalio warned that “now we have a breaking down of the financial order,” a difficulty he has spoken about at size on social media.
“We’re having profound adjustments in our home order … and we’re having profound adjustments on this planet order, such occasions are very very similar to the Thirties,” Dalio stated. “I’ve studied historical past, and this repeats again and again.”
Dalio referred to the mix of tariffs, extreme debt and a “rising energy difficult the present energy” as adjustments which are “very, very disruptive.”
“How that is dealt with might produce one thing that’s a lot worse than a recession,” he stated.
Particularly, Dalio has warned just lately about what he stated was the unsustainable progress of U.S. debt and collectors, reminiscent of China, holding an excessive amount of of it, in addition to the decline in U.S. manufacturing resulting in a reliance on different international locations for mandatory objects.
Dalio stated Sunday that the state of affairs might “be managed very effectively,” urging members of Congress to pledge to cut back the funds deficit by just a few share factors to three% of the gross home product, a measure of the nation’s financial exercise.
“If they do not, we’ll have a supply-demand downside for debt similtaneously now we have these different issues, and the outcomes of that shall be worse than a traditional recession,” he stated.
When requested to element his fears a few worst-case situation, Dalio stated he was frightened about “the worth of cash, inner battle that’s not the conventional democracy as we all know it, a global battle in a means that’s extremely disruptive to the world economic system, and will even be a army battle.”
Dalio had beforehand anticipated the 2008 monetary disaster. Bridgewater had warned in 2007 that “imbedded dangers within the system are fairly giant” forward of the eventual monetary disaster. A couple of months later, the agency stated it believed rates of interest would rise “till there’s a cracking of the monetary system,” including that “nobody is aware of how this monetary market contagion will play out.” Months later, the recession started.
Dalio stated in a prolonged put up to X final week forward of Trump’s non permanent reductions in his sweeping tariff will increase that whereas the duties had been “essential developments,” individuals are “largely overlooking the vastly extra essential forces which are driving nearly all the pieces, together with the tariffs.”
“The far larger, way more essential factor to bear in mind is that we’re seeing a basic breakdown of the most important financial, political, and geopolitical orders,” he warned. “This form of breakdown happens solely about as soon as in a lifetime, however they’ve occurred many occasions in historical past when comparable unsustainable situations had been in place.”
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