Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio says the US government needs to rethink how it comes up with its economic data.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, because of a large downward revision of job numbers.

On Friday, the BLS revised down the job growth figures for June from 147,000 to 14,000, a 90% drop.

Figures for May were also revised down from 144,000 to 19,000, bringing the combined two-month downward revision to 258,000 jobs.

Some analysts at US banks began citing the data as possible evidence suggesting the economy was slowing down and flashing potential recession signals.

Despite the controversy over firing the BLS Commissioner, in a post on the social media platform X, Ray Dalio says he would have fired her, too.

“I probably would have fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics too.

That’s because its process for making estimates is obviously obsolete and error-prone, and there is no good plan in the works for fixing it. The huge revisions in Friday’s employment numbers are symptomatic of this, especially because the revisions brought the numbers toward private estimates that were in fact much better.

I assure you that this is something that I know a lot about because of how I use data to follow the economy and bet on where it’s going.”

Dalio says if Trump indeed fired the BLS chief purely for political reasons, that may be a “big problem.”

Therefore, the investor says, “It would be good if President Trump made his thinking clear.”

“In any case, we do need big renovations to the ways the government estimates what’s going on in the economy to make them more, not less, accurate.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Billionaire Ray Dalio says investment portfolios should hold a certain percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) or gold as a hedge against the devaluation of the US dollar.

In a new interview with Master Investor podcast host Wilfred Frost, the co-chief investment officer of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates says that a proper diversification of an investment portfolio should include 15% of either gold or Bitcoin as US debt rises and geopolitical tensions increase.

“My own approach is, in my share of my portfolio, I have gold and I have some Bitcoin, but not much… I’m not going to describe my own exactly, but I’ll say the following: if you were neutral on everything, in other words, you didn’t have a point of view, and you were optimizing your portfolio for the best return-to-risk ratio, you would have about 15% of your money in gold or Bitcoin. I’m strongly preferring gold to Bitcoin. But that’s up to you.”

The risk-reward ratio, also known as the risk-return ratio, is used by investors to determine the potential gain for every dollar risked on an investment.

Dalio, who has warned that a 1970s-style period of stagflation may be coming, when there’s high inflation, high unemployment and low economic growth, says Bitcoin or gold may be an effective store of value when the US dollar loses value against other currencies, such as through money printing.

“The issue is the devaluation of money… If you have that issue and times when it occurred, which was in times of excess debt and geopolitical problems – just go back and study history, study the British pound, study the Dutch guilder, study this – you would find that in all such periods, also like the Seventies, [gold’s] an effective diversifier.

So if you had no view, you would have about 15% in that portfolio as a hedge against the other. I hope that that’s somewhat of a guide.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Golden Dayz/PurpleRender

Billionaire Ray Dalio’s hedge fund is shedding exposure to the S&P 500 and hedging against the US dollar – while managing to stay on offense.

The latest 13F filings show Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has lowered its stake in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, a benchmark fund that tracks the performance of the S&P 500.

That fund now makes up about 8.5% of Bridgewater’s overall portfolio as of the end of March.

Simultaneously, the hedge fund has increased its exposure to SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of gold bullion, less its expenses.

Bridgewater increased its GLD holdings by about 33%, allocating approximately $340 million in total exposure to the precious metal.

The move comes as Dalio repeatedly warns the US dollar’s decline could eventually trigger stagflation – a dreaded economic outcome marked by high inflation, high unemployment and low economic growth.

But Bridgewater’s portfolio is not merely defensive.

Alongside GLD, the firm has dramatically boosted its position in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA).

Bridgewater increased its Alibaba holdings by over 3,000%, attaining 5,660,258 shares worth approximately $680 million.

That makes it one of the fund’s top holdings.

Alibaba’s stock has risen approximately 42% year-to-date, driven by strong growth in its cloud computing segment.

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio says the US could be headed to a financial crash because political leaders are cautious against taking aggressive actions to address America’s budget deficit.

In a post on the social media platform X, the billionaire says senior members of both the Democratic and Republican parties agree that the US needs to reduce its deficit to 3% of the GDP (gross domestic product).

But he says the so-called absolutist policies prevent the adoption of measures such as tax increases and cuts to benefits that can address the debt problem.

“They explained the absolutist policies that must exist and those are that you must make statements like I will absolutely pledge not to raise your taxes or I will absolutely pledge not to reduce your benefits.”

Dalio says it is clear that the US is unlikely to change its debt trajectory and could face painful consequences. He says political leaders may be thrown out by their constituents and face pressure from their parties, so they find it impossible to make compromising statements and actions that can balance the revenue and expenses to produce a good budget.

“That’s the equivalent of saying I will absolutely pledge not to change the trajectory we’re on in order to have a better set of circumstances than the likely financial crash that we’re going to have.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

The co-chief investment officer of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, is issuing a warning on the US amid the ballooning national debt.

In a new Fox Business interview, Dalio says the US will face an economic catastrophe in a few years unless steps are taken to reduce the national debt, which is now hovering above $36 trillion.

“If you don’t do that [enforce the debt-reduction measures], and we probably will not do that, it is like the plaque building in the heart. And so we are now not going to have not only more debt and more debt service encroaching on our spending, but it’s also going to mean that we are going to have a supply-demand problem. And this is a heart attack, like an economic heart attack. I would guess it’s about three years, give or take…”

According to Dalio, the US has previously managed to successfully extricate itself from a fiscal situation like the one it is currently in, but to do so again would require sacrifices from everyone.

“We are at a juncture right now that if we can, soon, very soon, while the economy is still good, cut the deficit to 3% of GDP. Which is possible… you only have to change a couple of things by… change spending by 4%, change tax income by 4%. Then you have a lower interest rate as a result. This is possible. It was done between 1991 and 1998, that balance. Everybody gives a little bit. There’s a possibility of being able to get it [deficit] down to 3%.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Billionaire hedge fund legend Ray Dalio thinks investors aren’t paying attention to obvious factors in meme stock trading.

Dalio says in a new post on X that there’s always a “current most popular meme” that everyone believes in but is bound to lose its status.

“These memes typically are due to a mix of extrapolating what happened before and emotional considerations. Also, most investors typically don’t take into consideration market pricing. In other words, they tend to identify what has been a great investment (e.g., a strongly performing company) as great, and they don’t pay enough attention to its pricing, even though its pricing (whether it is cheap or expensive) is the most important thing.”

Dalio says this behavior sets the stage for potential market missteps, especially in the current economic climate.

At this time, it is typical for almost everyone to be looking to make money by buying assets that they believe will go up (rather than betting on them going down), and they quite often use leverage.”

Dalio’s meme trading advice follows dire warnings he’s recently issued about the US economy. Earlier this month, Dalio argued in an interview on PBS that the government needs to lower its budget deficit as a percentage of GDP from 7% to 3%.

“It has to be done with three things, and it has to be spread out among these three things, because any one of those three things would be too painful. Those three things are tax revenue, spending cuts and interest rates.

Although Congress and the president in the process does not deal directly with the third of those, right now a trillion dollars – half of our deficit – is interest payments, and not only do we have a trillion dollar interest payment, in the next year, we have nine trillion dollars of debt maturing that has to be either rolled over or sold…

So there’s what I call my 3%, three-part solution, which was very similar to 1991-1998. It was cut by 5% of GDP, the budget deficit, in those years was cut by 5% of GDP by spreading it around. So those are the three things that are needed.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: DALLE3

Billionaire hedge fund legend Ray Dalio says that the financial situation in the US presents a high likelihood of serious problems moving forward.

In a new interview on PBS’s Amanpour and Company, Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, says that the US government is in a situation where it absolutely must lower its budget deficit as a percentage of GDP from 7% to 3%.

According to Dalio, the government must take a three-step approach to lowering the deficit-to-GDP ratio if it wants to avoid a “very high likelihood of real problems.”

“It has to be done with three things, and it has to be spread out among these three things, because any one of those three things would be too painful. Those three things are tax revenue, spending cuts and interest rates.

Although Congress and the president in the process does not deal directly with the third of those, right now a trillion dollars – half of our deficit – is interest payments, and not only do we have a trillion dollar interest payment, in the next year, we have nine trillion dollars of debt maturing that has to be either rolled over or sold…

So there’s what I call my 3%, three-part solution, which was very similar to 1991-1998. It was cut by 5% of GDP, the budget deficit, in those years was cut by 5% of GDP by spreading it around. So those are the three things that are needed.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Billionaire investor and founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, thinks it is not yet time for the Federal Reserve to ease the US monetary policy.

In a new Bloomberg interview, Dalio says the Fed “should not cut interest rates” despite the pressure to do so.

Dalio says that over the longer term, when the current Fed Governor Jay Powell’s term ends in May of 2026, the Fed could, however, end up cutting rates due to political pressure.

“There’s a great deal of uncertainty and there’s a deterioration in sentiment, but really the actual economy. So they (the Fed) are in a difficult position.

I think that when we look farther out, we’re dealing with the political aspects… I think that when there’s a new Fed chair, there will likely be more inclination to cut rates because it’s an old story of conflict between those in power, in political [power], who like stimulation. And because of the enormous impact of interest rates on debt service, because the debts are so large, there’s going to be pressure that way.”

According to Dalio, the aggressive easing of US monetary policy could negatively impact the bond market.

“I think the markets, if they were to see a too aggressive cut in monetary policy, too inappropriate cut, that it would actually be bad for the bond market….

… watch the yield curve. As you get rates rising by long rates and you have also at the same time, let’s say, movement down in the dollar and rises in gold, that kind of dynamic is reflecting a movement out of the bonds. Because the value of money matters a lot.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Ray Dalio is a legend in the investing world. He founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975, one of the largest traditional hedge funds, managing close to $172 billion in assets. As one might expect, Dalio has done quite well and now has an estimated net worth of $14 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Over the years, he has also developed what he calls an “All Weather” strategy that he believes can steer steer investors through the darkest of storms. Dalio recently teamed up with State Street to bring this strategy to the masses through the SPDR Bridgewater All Weather ETF (ALLW -2.84%).

With the market getting hammered as of late, is this the right place to put your money to weather the storm?

Dalio’s All Weather strategy

Dalio and his team developed the All Weather strategy after over 25 years of studying history, markets, and working with clients. Some of the key events that led Dalio and his team to form this strategy were President Richard Nixon’s decision to break away from the Bretton Woods system that linked the U.S. dollar to gold, and working with McDonald’s to help the fast food giant hedge its exposure to chicken prices.

Initially, Dalio created the strategy for his family’s trust and did not envision it becoming a wide-scale investment product. But the ultimate goal was to develop a strategy that will be able to stand the test of time long after Dalio is gone. The All Weather fund brings together investment approaches from four different strategies, all of which can do well in a certain environment.

One of these approaches might thrive when inflation rises, while the other does well when inflation falls. One might do well when growth rises, while the other does well when growth misses expectations. While the strategy has some variations, it might typically look like this:

• 30% equities, typically by holding the broader benchmark S&P 500
• 40% U.S. Treasury bonds with maturities of 20 years or more
• 15% U.S. Treasury bonds with maturities of seven to 10 years
• 7.5% gold
• 7.5% commodities

Image source: Getty Images.

What’s in the All Weather ETF and how has the strategy performed?

The Bridgewater ETF is actively managed, which means it can change a good deal more than a passively managed one and also has higher associated fees. As of April 3, 37% of the fund was invested in a U.S. government money market fund, while 13% of the fund was invested in an S&P 500 ETF. Another 5% of the fund was in Treasury bills, while 4% was invested in an emerging markets ETF. The fund also has exposure to a number of different currencies and some Gold futures.

Because the fund is actively managed and stocks have been getting crushed, the fund may have adapted to prepare for more of a risk-off environment, but a lot of the pieces in the All Weather strategy are still present.

There are varying assessments of how the strategy has performed long term, but by and large the strategy seems to perform well when stocks do not. Data from OfDollarsandData blog, which is run by Nick Maggiulli, chief operating officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, showed that the All Weather strategy outperformed in the 1970s, a decade filled with stagflation, and in the first decade of the 2000s, which included both the dot-com bubble and the Great Recession.

Over the last five years, Fortune magazine reported that investors have been frustrated with the strategy’s performance, which makes sense considering what a strong run it had been for stocks. Essentially, this indicates that the All Weather strategy works best in times of duress. Given the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs and their broader impact, the All Weather strategy could certainly be set to outperform.

However, I think it’s really all about one’s investing horizon. If you’re closer to retirement and want to preserve the value of your funds, then the All Weather strategy could be the right pick. However, if you have a longer investing horizon and can afford to stomach some of the near-term volatility that is likely to continue, then you may not want such a conservative strategy.

Iconic investor Ray Dalio is warning that US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies may cause a global economic slowdown.

In a new interview on CNBC, the Bridgewater Associates founder says he has serious concerns that increasing tariffs may wreak macroeconomic havoc at a time when the nation faces several other challenges.

“I agree with the problem. I am very concerned about the solution, the practicality of the solution. In other words, I think that this is going to create not only the problem, the capital markets problem that I’m talking about related to prices going up, costs going up, revenue going down and capital problem, but I also think that this is going to create great sand in the gears of production worldwide.

At the same time, I do agree that this interdependency, this issue of productivity in the world in which we have to be competitive and productive, and we’re not competitive in producing things is a longer-term problem, not an easy one. And I do expect that it is going to have political consequences. This is the nature of the cycle.”

Dalio also says the nation needs to address other systemic challenges, such as lowering the debt and reducing government spending.

“It is coming also at the same time as we have a budget issue. Now, the budget issue is a comparably important issue. So as we look ahead in the months ahead, we have to get the budget deficit down to 3% of gross domestic product. I worry about that at the same time as this is happening. These are not easy problems to solve. I’m concerned because the bigger problems exist, the debt exists. You can’t get around the debt. The overspending exists. You still have that. You still have that competitiveness issue. These have repeated throughout history. We’re in a period that’s very much like the 1930s.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney