How markets will be impacted by Kevin Warsh: David Rubenstein

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David Rubenstein (0:30)

We have $40 trillion of debt. We're now paying more in interest every year than on our national defense.

Brian Sozzi (0:35)

What's the consequences?

David Rubenstein (0:36)

You have ****. I've chaired the Smithsonian Kennedy Center and have the Library of Congress support board involved in the National Archives.

Brian Sozzi (0:42)

The historian that you are, what do you think about the remaking of the physical structure of the White House?

David Rubenstein (0:46)

It has a sense of history to it.

Brian Sozzi (0:48)

So I think that this is not leaving me optimistic.

David Rubenstein (0:50)

In this country, 19% of the adults are functionally illiterate.

Brian Sozzi (0:57)

All right, welcome to a new episode of Power Players. I'm really excited for my next guest. I always enjoy talking to him. He always gives me a lot of time, and I don't know why, but I'm very appreciative of it. David Rubenstein, The Carlyle Group co-founder, prolific author, interviewer, it's good to see you.

David Rubenstein (1:12)

My pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Brian Sozzi (1:14)

You're out with a new book coming out, I believe in October, and it really plays into your love for all things America. What makes you write these books at this point in your career?

David Rubenstein (1:23)

Well, you could argue that I should have written them earlier, or actually argue that I shouldn't have written them at all. But I do love reading, and I've been very involved with the Library of Congress for quite some time, and I chair its support group. And at the Library of Congress, we just finished this weekend the National Book Festival, which is something that Laura Bush kind of developed when she was First Lady, and now we're in our 26th year. And what we do is we bring 100,000 people from all over the country to come to meet authors and so forth. A number of years ago, when I was getting involved with the Library of Congress, I suggested to the Librarian of Congress, Jim Billington, that it be a nice thing to bring members of Congress together on a bipartisan basis, have them sit down, listen to a discussion of America, and then have a dinner with them. And it turned out that members like it because it's a rare opportunity where they can sit somebody from the opposite party, nobody from the press will say, how come you're sitting with a Democrat or Republican?

You can get an interesting interview with David McCullar or Dars Karnsgob, one of somebody who's a really American expert, I'll do the interview and then members of Congress can ask questions. So I took the best of those interviews and put them in a book, and the Library of Congress is publishing that.

Brian Sozzi (2:32)

There's no legislation getting passed. Are these dinners still happening?

David Rubenstein (2:35)

Yes, because members like it. You have to work around their schedules because they're not in town as much. But generally, we get about 250 people showing up at the dinners.

Each member of Congress can come and can bring one guest. They typically bring a constituent or sometimes their spouse, maybe their chief of staff. And members really enjoy it. They tell me, sadly, this is the most interesting thing they're doing in Congress at times.

So many members who have retired from Congress still can come to these events, and they still come back. And interestingly, I'll comment that it used to be in the old days there was legislation. Legislation is when the House passed the bill, the Senate passed the bill, and they go to a conference committee. And there are no more conference committees. Everything is done out of the leadership office. So you really don't have conference committees. So therefore, members don't know each other from the House and the Senate as well as they used to, because there are no conference committees where the Senate and House members get together. Also, the Democrats and Republicans are not really supposed to be fraternizing with each other that much. And so this is a dinner where there's no press, and they can sit next to somebody from the opposite party and not be criticized for fraternizing.