My Conversation with Ray Dalio
Here is the audio and video and transcript. Here is part of the CWT summary:
Ray joined Tyler to discuss the forces that will affect American life in the coming decades, why we should be skeptical of the saliency of current equities prices, the market as a poker game, the benefits and risks of the US dollar as the world reserve currency, why he thinks US inflation will not be transitory, the key to his success as an investor, how studying the Great Depression enabled him to anticipate the 2008 financial crisis, Bridgewater’s culture of radical transparency, the usefulness of psychometric profiles, where the United States is falling short most in terms of moral character, his truth-seeking process, the kinds of education crucial to building a successful dynasty or empire — and what causes them to fail, how transcendental meditation helps him be creative and objective, what he loves about jazz music, what we undervalue about the ocean, why he loves bow-hunting Cape Buffalo, and more.
Here is one excerpt:
COWEN: If we think about macroeconomic cycles, Christina Romer claims a lot of downturns are the result of Fed contractions. Jim Hamilton claims that some downturns are the result of high oil price shocks, and you have a theory of debt cycles. If you’re just trying to apportion out mentally, how many of the cycles are Fed contractionary shocks? How many are oil shocks? How many are debt cycles? How do you see that landscape?
DALIO: I think that there’s goods and services that exist in a certain quantity, and then there’s a certain amount of money and credit, and they interact. And throughout history, if you have, let’s say, an oil shock that is not accommodated by an easing of central bank policy — in other words, the production of more money and credit — then, what I’m saying, if there was the same money and credit and you had an oil shock, then as oil goes up, something else would have to go down, and it would produce one set of circumstances.
It wouldn’t produce the same inflation. It would produce a consequence, and it would produce a transfer of wealth for those who are selling the oil at a high price — they gain wealth. And it would produce a decrease in the wealth for those who are having to pay that higher price. For example, it would make Middle Eastern countries richer, and it would make American companies and American entities poorer. That’s what would happen in a world in which we were to look at those items, and that certainly can cause a downturn in the economy.
Similarly now, where you can print money and credit, you can create money and credit, and it could have its effects. But to answer your question about do oil shocks or Fed policy have an effect? The answer is both because, for other reasons, the tightening of money and credit reduces demand for things, and as a result of reducing the demand for things, it weakens the economy.
Both an oil price shock or some other shock or a Federal Reserve tightening can cause the economy to weaken. That’s the answer to your question. Then it would have different implications, depending on whether the central banks provided more or less money and credit.
There is much more at the link! And if you would like to donate to support Conversations with Tyler, here is the link.