Hedge fund billionaire warns inequality in US may spur ‘terrible civil war’
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio unleashed a tweetstorm warning that America is “on the brink of a terrible civil war” because of widening inequality.
Dalio, the 71-year-old founder of the giant hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, tweeted on Sunday that he was pleased by Biden’s Inauguration Day rhetoric of unity. But the Wall Street tycoon sounded less optimistic about how quickly and easily the new administration can repair the nation’s economic and political fissures.
“I believe we are on the brink of a terrible civil war,” he tweeted. “Where we are at an inflection point between entering a type of hell of fighting or pulling back to work together for peace and prosperity that addresses the big wealth, values, and opportunity gaps we’re now seeing.”
Dalio — whose net worth last year was estimated by Forbes at $18.6 billion, making him the 69th richest person in the world — has been talking publicly about the dangers of growing wealth inequality and rabid partisanship for years, calling it a “national emergency.”
As recently as December, Dalio took to his LinkedIn account to show that economic data predicted the country “is at a tipping point in which it could go from manageable internal tension to revolution and/or civil war.”
“Good words and spirit aren’t enough,” Dalio tweeted on Sunday. “People will have to agree on both how to grow the pie and how to divide it well. That will require revolutionary change.”
Since stepping back from day-to-day management of the $160 billion Bridgewater fund in 2017, Dalio has taken on the role of a thought leader, publishing a book of his management philosophy titled “Principles” and offering his thoughts on markets and global economics on social media.
Dalio’s mood is dark of late. His 42-year-old son Devon was killed in a car accident just before Christmas in the family’s hometown of Greenwich, Conn.
That said, Dalio promised his Twitter followers that he would stay on top of the situation and do what he can to stave off a second American civil war.
“Our country is still in a terrible financial state and terribly divided,” Dalio concluded at the end of his tweetstorm. “I will monitor how those good intentions are turning into good actions and keep you posted.”