Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on the Federal Reserve, corporate debt, taxes, President Trump’s job performance, the mainstream media’s opposition to the president.
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on U.S. Trade Negotiations with China, the markets, President Trump's first two years and Federal Reserve policy.
Transcript
Back with Carl Icahn right now. It does show how much attention we pay to all of these Federal Reserve guys and we're in the middle of what you have claimed Carl has been this unwinding of keeping interest rates obscenely low for close to a decade. You would set an interview not long ago if you keep them abnormally low referring to rates you are only going to pay a big price for that. By definition you can't just keep printing up money and giving it to people you just can't in essence. So sooner or later they have to come home to roost. Are we at that phase right now.
Yeah. I don't know if it's right now but in my own portfolios what I've always done is keep them hedged so I'm not really playing the market sometimes more hedged sometimes less hedged last year and a half I've been completely hedged.
So you're buffering yourself just in case.
Yeah, it doesn't really matter too much to me what the market does. You know that was for example.
You know I thought this environment had dive packed the oil company. You know I just said activists wanted to do a deal with diamond back or what have you. But what I did throughout that is sell the Exelby the index against it so it didn't matter to me what oil prices did. So obviously that's what I do.
And now I've done it you know I'm at a high percent almost 100 percent hedged but I don't know what the market's going to do. Nobody does.
I know that people are noticing all these multi hundred point down some point swings and Zangwill something's going on here that's not typical. What do you.
You know I agree. And sooner or later there's going to be a day it's going to be a day and I'm. 98 percent sure this where we do hit a wall because the Federal Reserve is not a rich father they just keep giving Hassad money it keeps giving them some Playboy some money say you can't keep doing that because you have the world economy and the father runs out of money and you can't. And you just said about the Fed it's not just the interest rates but sooner or later I have to wonder why their balance sheets that balance sheet has trillions and we're at least not keep pouring the money. And then you look at that. And then you look at the debt in this country you know 85 90 percent of this country really doesn't have a net worth. I mean they keep talking about consumer wealth but I don't think they have it so to borrow to the hilt. Sooner or later they've got to stop borrowing. They've got to pay back sooner or later if we don't do something pretty drastic. We're going to hit a wall. We sort of hit a wall with this 20 percent move. But one time there's going to be more that will hit.
I think it may not last that debt issue as bad as it was a decade ago.
The debt issue was worse I see. I mean look I've been telling you that 250 trillion dollars of debt in this world. A decade ago I think it was I know I'm not an economist but I think it was but I would like to read that it was 100 100 trillion. You up to 250 trillion. That tells you so far.
[inaudible] vulnerable you always hear the corporate balance sheets better personal Americans balance sheets better you're not buying that.No I don't think I ever recover the balance sheet better. What the corporations have faded out of the state to some extent I've been for as an activist buy backs in certain cases like Apple right because that's so much money. We said buyback buyback but we don't said it. But every company and a lot of these companies instead steady use the money to build productivity went out and just bought stock back in some cases at the wrong time. Many cases at the wrong time. So I don't know that the corporate corporate debt is pretty high and it's coming due and it is coming due so you don't don't have the false impression that all of these guys have so much money now. I don't think many of them do. And I personally looking at some of the economy you could argue it either way but that doesn't mean that this market care one back 15 percent back up. You know I really I really spend time thinking about what companies will look at where to be an activist much much much more time deciding what the market's going to do because the pundits have told you what the markets are going to do. I think they died. And 25 cents or whatever it is. This is a Coca-Cola result.
You know I think they're all on CNBC. But anyway.
