David Rubenstein - Life, Leadership, and LBOs

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (2:10)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
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**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:35)
My guest today is David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, one of the largest private equity firms in the world. David has worked in the White House, built a $300 billion investment institution, become a prominent philanthropist, published books and even hosts his own TV show. It was a thrill to sit down with him and cover the whole spectrum of his experience as a father, investor, historian and titan of American business. Please enjoy this great conversation with David Rubenstein.
David, as you review all the things you've done with your life, one of the underlying themes that's very consistent is, I would classify you as an American patriot of sorts, that so much of your interest in work and writing and interviews has been in and around the American system itself. And we sit here today at a very interesting time for that system, given that we're all talking and thinking about the war in Ukraine with Russia, the Chinese system, which is very distinct from our own. And I would love to just hear your perspective on the world today, which seems to be much more maybe chaotic and volatile are the right words than if you compared it to the last 40 years, given your unique set of experiences, but also the clear interest that you have in the American experiment and the American system overall.

**David Rubenstein** (3:45)
Well, thank you very much for inviting me. I'm honored to be on your show.
Russia, Ukraine is something that's top of mind for me because as the global economy is beginning to recover or was beginning to recover from COVID, we now find ourselves in a freefall a bit in terms of the global economy. We're seeing a dramatic decline in obviously the Russian economy and obviously the Ukrainian economy, but it's spilling over in the European economy and to some extent in the US economy. And so until that issue is resolved, I don't think we're gonna really know how the global economy is gonna perform over the next year or so.
My own view is that Putin made a miscalculation. Obviously he thought this would be a walk in the park and it turned out not to be. And as a result, he now is scrambling in my view to negotiate the best possible position for himself from which to negotiate an exit or an off ramp. In other words, he's not gonna conquer Ukraine, almost certainly.