Ray Dalio, Founder & CIO Mentor Bridgewater Associates, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 16th, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio thinks reducing the U.S. budget deficit could stabilize the bond market and lower interest rates.
The founder of Bridgewater, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, said the current projected deficit is 7.5% of U.S. gross domestic product. If that ratio goes down to 3%, the supply-demand imbalance in the bond market would be lessened significantly, Dalio said.
“It’s almost a black and white situation,” Dalio said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “All those bonds have to be sold … there’s a tremendous supply … It’s happened many times before, so we have to stabilize that, and we can do it.”
Rising financing costs along with continued spending growth and declining tax receipts have combined to send deficits spiraling and have pushed the national debt past the $36 trillion mark. In 2024, the government spent more on interest payments than any other outlay other than Social Security, defense and health care.
The widely-followed investor said reducing the deficit can be achieved through higher taxes, lower spending or a combination of the two, so long as politicians work together to solve the problem.
“That’s what I call the 3% solution,” Dalio said. “We have so much debt that the interest costs on the debt is more important than spending and taxes …. our problem isn’t the deficit. Our problem is the politics, the fragmented politics.”
