The founder of Bridgewater Associates, billionaire investor Ray Dalio, warned yesterday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” of a financial blowout more severe than the 1930s. Some of his points usefully echoed that of the founder of the Schiller Institute Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in her April 10th call “What Each and Every Nation Must Do Now—Wall Street Gave Us This Crisis; LaRouche Has the Solution”, which opened: “The Western financial system is now teetering at the edge of a general, systemic blowout which is about to usher in a new global Great Depression, far worse than that of the 1930s.”
While Dalio offered no solution beyond cutting the budget deficit in the U.S. from around 7% of GDP to 3%, he did usefully announce to the general public that aggressive tariff policies and a ballooning debt could trigger a breakdown of the global financial system. He added that the world is at a critical juncture, marked by profound changes in the political, economic, and geopolitical order—factors which he says have historically led to severe crises. There are several overlapping challenges: rising debt, internal political divisions, growing geopolitical tensions, and shifts in global power. Then he stated:
“I think that right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession. And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well… a breakdown of the monetary system.… Such times are very much like the 1930s. If you take tariffs, if you take debt, if you take the rising power challenging the existing power—those changes in the orders, the systems, are very, very disruptive.”
