Billionaire investor Ray Dalio warns 'irreconcilable differences' in Congress creating 'very risky situation'
After making comments this week that ascended concerns about the economic and geopolitical state of America, Bridgewater Associates founder and billionaire investor Ray Dalio expanded on his warning signs in an exclusive with FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto.
"Over the next year, and so on, we are going to have a great political conflict. Over the next year, two and three, we are going to have, in my opinion, I may be wrong, we are going to have debt and economic issues that will play into that," Dalio said on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Friday. "And over the next one, two and three years, we're going to have geopolitical conflicts with China and such."
Dalio reacted to the ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week, noting that proof of "irreconcilable differences" between Republicans and Democrats are starting to seep through Congress’ seams.
"We are likely to have irreconcilable differences that may not be settled by rules and law," Dalio said. "Irreconcilable differences about values and wealth and important things that will drive people to different states. They'll go to the blue states or the red states. There will be a difficulty of the central government to order the populations to behave in the way that they want. They will say, 'Make me.' There'll be a challenge between the states and the federal [branch]."
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"That's a very risky situation," he continued. "But it's come down to that the things that people will fight for have become: I will not compromise, I'm going to win at all costs. And so the rules are in jeopardy."
Issues that are apparently crucial to Dalio, like lowering national debt and compromising with "healthy capital markets," aren’t considered "priority" to politicians and everyday Americans because "we haven’t felt the pain of it" yet.
"It's going to evolve over the next five years in the following way: we're going to have, internally, a great political conflict in terms of that polarity," Dalio said.
The billionaire investor encouraged moderates from both sides to meet in the middle and force policy changes.
"Yes, we have to worry that [Congress is] not worried. And we have to worry they're not dealing with it. You're asking, what do we do?" Dalio started to explain. "If we work together in a smart, bipartisan way so that we can do the best balancing of those choices that we can deal with most of these problems. But the problem is... the reality is there is populism of both extremes, meaning that both parties are lining up for a fight, that there is [no] trust in the system."
"I would say if the middle, moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats, just even said, 'I'm bipartisan, can you say, I'm bipartisan?'" he expanded. "Will you have the courage to do that? If a limited number, even a small number of both parties became bipartisan and put together a bipartisan coalition there for voting in the Senate, in the House, they would have swing votes."
Arguing that it may not be likely, it’s a "simple" thing for lawmakers to do, the market expert added.
"If you have those and then you build a coalition of those, that could make a big difference, I would hope. I'm just trying to give a practical thing," Dalio said.
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Both politicians and business leaders shouldn’t ever "pay attention to one thing," with the investor reminding of the importance of diversification.
"If you know how to diversify well, you could reduce your risk up to 80% without reducing your returns," Dalio said. "The one thing we know most is, that what we don't know is greater than anything what we do know."