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Ray Dalio saw the light in Singapore.
The hedge fund legend and founder of Bridgewater Associates was attending a Taylor Swift concert in the Lion City when the idea came roaring into his mind: T Swizzle is the answer to all our problems.
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"@taylorswift for President!" Dalio Instagrammed alongside a roundly mocked selfie. "I just saw her at her concert in Singapore and realized that she can bring together Americans and people in most countries much better than either of the candidates and that bringing people together is the most important thing."
He added that "watching this concert with people from all over the world made me and them feel good and connected and reminded me how powerful that universal culture is."
"Wouldn’t it be great if we had two candidates who could lead that culture and make smart leadership decisions, too?" he asked.
The idea was greeted with a mix of support and snark, along with accusations of wokeism and selfie wisecracks. Dalio responded, "No, I wasn't drunk (though obviously I need to work on my selfies), and yes, it was a joke, which is a half-truth."
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"The half that’s true is that I think she can bring people together a lot better than either of the presidential candidates and bringing people together is one of the most important things a president should do," he said.
Dalio followed up his concerns about America's future in a recent interview with the Financial Times, in which he said that he sees about a 35% to 40% chance that the U.S. could end up in a civil war.
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"We are now on the brink,” Dalio said. But we “don’t yet know if we will cross over into much more turbulent times.”
Bridgewater Associates has seen its share of turbulent times.
Dalio, who once said, "He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass," established the fund in his New York City apartment in 1975, two years after receiving an MBA from Harvard Business School and 14 years before Taylor Swift was born.
Bridgewater Associates became the world's largest hedge fund in 2005. From 1991 to 2005, it lost money in only three calendar years, and never more than 4%.
The tide turned in 2020 when Bridgewater posted heavy losses related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then, in December 2021, Bridgewater posted a 7.8% return, providing the firm with its best annual performance since 2018 at the close of the year.