Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has a habit of saying provocative things on television. Earlier this month, for instance, he said that the globe was sliding towards a world war, with full-blown conflict between major powers growing more likely. Today, Dalio took to CNBC to say that the US economy has slipped into a ‘stagflationary environment.’
According to the founder of Bridgewater Associates – the world’s biggest hedge fund – warned that stubborn inflation and slowing growth should terrify everyone. Dalio shared his outlook just a few days before the government publishes its preliminary look at US economic growth for the first quarter of 2026 – economists estimate that the economy expanded by 2.2 percent in the quarter. That’s a long way from stagflation, which is what economists like to call the poisonous combination of rising prices and falling economic growth. Building on his take, Dalio said it would be a mistake for the presumptive new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh to lower interest rates. ‘We are certainly in a stagflationary period,’ Dalio told CNBC earlier this morning.
