The J. Paul Getty heir Gordon Getty always goes big—whether it’s economic ideas, his classical music, or a ‘perfect’ Napa cabernet. Brendan Coffey interviewed him for the May issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine.
Q: You’ve been composing since 1980. Are you a businessman or artist?
A: Business I have to do, but it’s fun, too. Even if I agreed with some of the socialists that the free market is iniquitous, I would still be for it because it’s so much fun.
Q: You have a buy-side company.
A: ReFlow, which provides liquidity to mutual funds seeing redemptions. It hasn’t conquered the world like I hoped 10 years ago. But it’s been cash flow positive for the past five years. It’s alive and kicking.
Q: What’s your approach to investing?
A: I’ve always been a risk taker. There’s a logic to that: If you are born to wealth, you can afford to lose a fair bit and still be fine.
Q: If you had to invest new money right now, would you choose funds, gold, bonds, or stocks?
A: If I had to choose one thing, I’d say SPDRs.
Q: You spend a lot of time on economics.