The Federal Reserve’s emergency action of pushing rates to almost zero percent puts the markets in an even more precarious position, according to Ray Dalio.
“Long-term interest rates hitting the hard 0% floor means that virtually all asset classes go down because the positive effects of interest rates falling won’t exist (at least not much),” said Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, in a LinkedIn post Monday. “Hitting this 0% floor also means that virtually all the reserve country central banks’ interest rate stimulation tools (including cutting them and yield curve guidance) won’t work.”
In the second emergency interest-rate cut in two weeks on Sunday, the Fed slashed its benchmark back to essentially zero and announced a massive program of bond-buying. It was the latest attempt to save an 11-year expansion from the pandemic, which has wreaked havoc across financial markets and threatens to tip the U.S. into recession too -- if it hasn’t done so already.
Dalio’s macro fund dropped about 20% this year through Thursday as the manager found himself on the wrong side of a market rout caused by the escalating coronavirus pandemic.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.