Ray Dalio: We’re Heading Into Very, Very Dark Times! America & The UK’s Decline Is Coming!

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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Ray Dalio (0:30)

Pay attention, pain plus reflection equals progress. And from that principle, my company became the largest hedge fund in the world.

Steven Bartlett (0:38)

Managing how much?

Ray Dalio (0:39)

$150 billion. But I learned that history of things that never happened in my lifetime before were important things to understand in order to predict the future. And we can get into that if you want.

Steven Bartlett (0:50)

Please. So, Ray Dalio is the legendary billionaire investor who decoded the cycles of human history to predict financial crashes, build the world's largest hedge fund, and now to warn us about what lies ahead. Are you optimistic about the future of the UK?

Ray Dalio (1:06)

No.

Steven Bartlett (1:06)

What about the United States?

Ray Dalio (1:07)

No.

Steven Bartlett (1:08)

Why?

Ray Dalio (1:08)

Okay. In order to bet on what's going to happen in the global economy, I learned that there's five big forces that create a big cycle that's repeated through history, which lasts about 80 years. The first is the money debt force that creates wealth and opportunities gaps, and it's connected to the second force, the internal conflict, where you don't trust the system, causing wars between the left and the right. And it's not easy answers like, tax the rich, and we can get into that. But the third is geopolitical force, in other words, international conflict. Then there's acts of nature. And then number five is man's inventiveness, particularly of new technologies. Now, the question is, who wins the technology war, because the winner is that. Determine how the new world order works.

Steven Bartlett (1:55)

Is it something to be concerned about?

Ray Dalio (1:56)

No, the question is how you as an individual handle it.

Steven Bartlett (2:00)

How do I as an individual handle it?

Ray Dalio (2:01)

So there's building your financial strength, flexibility, importance of being open minded, how to get more out of the minute, not how to work harder. And I really urge your audience to learn all of this.

Steven Bartlett (2:13)

So first of all, just give me 30 seconds of your time. Two things I wanted to say. The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after week. Means the world to all of us. And this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place. But secondly, it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started. And if you enjoy what we do here, please join the 24% of people that listen to this podcast regularly and follow us on this app. Here's a promise I'm gonna make to you. I'm gonna do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future. We're gonna deliver the guests that you want me to speak to, and we're gonna continue to keep doing all of the things you love about this show.

Ray Dalio (2:54)

Thank you.

Steven Bartlett (3:00)

Ray, I want to describe to you who's listening right now. And the question I have for you is, what is the most important thing that this persona of person should be thinking about? At the highest level right now. So the person that's listening is someone who is intent on improving their life. They're really interested in business, potentially starting their own business. They care about where they're investing their time and energy, and also where they're setting up their home based on, in terms of geography. They are aspiring to accomplish some goal. They're probably between the age of 18 and 50, predominantly.

And they are very, very interested in understanding what's happening in a world that feels incredibly scary, fast paced, and uncertain at the moment. This is a very difficult question. But if anyone, I was going to ask anyone, it would have to be you.

What's one of the first things they should be considering at this moment to safeguard their future, their family, their finances?

Ray Dalio (4:01)

I don't think it's a difficult question. I think it's very clear. They have to understand how the life cycle works.

Okay. They have to understand how it works. We were just talking before in the book, and there was the arc of the life cycle, right? And you have to understand that you're on an adventurous journey, okay? And you have a certain nature, you know, those qualities that make you have your preferences and so on. And then you're going after the things that you like, and you're learning, and it's going to have the ups and downs and so on, and how you approach that. So you asked from the higher level, if I'm looking down, you know, like that life cycle, that arc, what's that journey like? How do you approach it? You know, what are your principles? How do you even learn how to approach it? That's why we're having these conversations, right? So that's clear. You know, what's your nature? How's the journey? How do you find the path that's suitable to your nature? And then you'll go down that path and you'll discover, and you'll evolve. What's that like? That's what they need to know.