🚨BILLIONAIRE DAVID RUBENSTEIN WARNS: AMERICA’S IS $100 TRILLION IN DEBT—ONLY THING TO SAVE US!

David Rubenstein (0:00)

My country is spending more interest on debt than defense spending. Usually it goes down in terms of its world power, and that's what we're doing now. Currently, we have $40 trillion of debt.

Rashad Bilal (0:08)

Is there any way out of it?

David Rubenstein (0:09)

The only way we're gonna get out of this, and honestly, is paying it off in devalued dollars. There's no other way out unless you wanna do something dramatic, like increase taxes dramatically, or a cut spending, and people don't wanna do that.

Troy Millings (0:21)

Have you seen anything like the moment that we're currently living in, in terms of the economy?

David Rubenstein (0:25)

People always like to say, this time is different, and those are the most dangerous words in the investment world, because history repeats itself. In the end, nobody really knew which companies were gonna make it, and which companies were not.

Rashad Bilal (0:34)

When do you think another bear market is going to go?

David Rubenstein (0:36)

Well, if I knew, I would be probably shorting the market from right now. This uncertainty and these wars are very expensive, and I think don't help the global economy.

Troy Millings (0:45)

You said your biggest financial regrets were investments you passed on, including Meta and Amazon. What have those moments taught you?

David Rubenstein (0:52)

In the case of Meta, and he told me they were trying to raise $30,000, so I didn't put in the $30,000. One of Mark Zuckerberg's roommates did do it, and I think that $30,000 he put in was now worth about $50 billion. I regret that. It reminds me how lacking in intelligence I am in judging some things.

Troy Millings (1:08)

What have you learned about leadership in this time in sports that you probably brought over from your career in private equity?

David Rubenstein (1:15)

If you can't take losing, you can't take the fans complaining about you, you shouldn't buy a sports game. Because fans are not going to praise you. You want somebody to praise you, buy a dog.

Rashad Bilal (1:23)

All right, guys, welcome back. EYL special episode. We have David Rubenstein. Thank you for joining us.

David Rubenstein (1:28)

My pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Rashad Bilal (1:30)

Co-founder of CarlyleGroup, one of the largest private investment firms, 485 billion assets under management.

David Rubenstein (1:36)

That's correct.

Rashad Bilal (1:38)

Yes. And you are also the owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

David Rubenstein (1:42)

That's correct.

Rashad Bilal (1:43)

That's what we're going to talk about today.

David Rubenstein (1:45)

I'm happy to talk about that.

Troy Millings (1:47)

He's going to be a New York Times best-selling author as well. He's already a New York Times. Again.

Rashad Bilal (1:51)

He's already a best-selling author. And you got the President Medal of Freedom Award.

David Rubenstein (1:57)

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was given to me by President Biden, yes.

Rashad Bilal (2:01)

Congratulations.

David Rubenstein (2:02)

Thank you.

Troy Millings (2:03)

That's a first for us.

David Rubenstein (2:04)

Well, it's nice to get. I mean, it's the highest civilian honor you can theoretically get, but I'm happy to get it. But I'm sure there are other people who deserved it more than me that didn't get it yet.

Rashad Bilal (2:14)

Yes.

So we're going to talk about you owning the Orioles. We're going to talk about the book. Before, let's just give some background for the audience. So you started, you were in the Carter White House.

David Rubenstein (2:27)

That's correct.

Rashad Bilal (2:28)

That was 1970?

David Rubenstein (2:30)

77, Carter started January 20th, 77 I was the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor to the president. I was only 27 I didn't know what I was doing, but in some ways nobody else knew what they were doing either.

Rashad Bilal (2:41)

So when you went from working in government to starting The Carlyle Group, how did that transition happen? And what was the early days of starting The Carlyle Group?

David Rubenstein (2:52)

Okay. Well, I worked in the White House for four years for President Carter. We lost the election overwhelmingly to Ronald Reagan. So people used to tell me how great and smart I was when they wanted something from me when I was in the White House. All of a sudden, they wouldn't call me back when I did a job after we lost the election.

Rashad Bilal (3:07)

What was your position in the White House?

David Rubenstein (3:08)

I was the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor.

Rashad Bilal (3:11)

What exactly does that do?

David Rubenstein (3:12)

Well, my boss was the Domestic Policy Advisor in charge of all domestic policy, non-farm policy things, I was his deputy, we had a big staff, and we basically advised Carter on everything from agriculture to civil rights to anything else that was not foreign policy.