Billionaire Howard Marks: Clinton isn't 'the candidate of change' but at least she's 'sane and competent'
Billionaire distressed-debt investor Howard Marks, the founder of Oaktree Capital Management, is backing Hillary Clinton for president because she’s “sane and competent.”
At the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit on Wednesday, Marks wasn’t exactly enthused when he was asked if Clinton could tackle some of the key economic issues he had raised.
“I haven’t heard much that convinces me, but I believe that she’s, well, what did your boss [Mike Bloomberg] say? ‘Sane and competent’? And, I believe she will surround herself with good advisors. And I believe she understands the need for good advisors. And she will work tirelessly and long hours of study to come up with plans. She is not the candidate of change, and we need change.”
Without mentioning Donald Trump’s name, he continued: “And I think the idea of change is a good one. I’m not crazy about the current messenger of change. That’s the problem. And, if there were another candidate at another time who had a message of change and the competence that Mike Bloomberg is talking about, I think I’d be all for it.”
Marks has previously made it clear that he’s not a fan of Trump. Just last month, Marks skewered Trump’s economic plan in a 16-page letter to investors. Marks, who donated $2,700 to Clinton in January, didn’t sing the Democratic presidential nominee’s praises, either.
“As for my picking on Trump here: I’m quick to point out that Clinton has her own shortcomings as a candidate and potential president. Her use of a private email server while Secretary of State is just one prime example. And she has embraced positions, such as opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and her promise of free public college at certain income levels, that seem intended simply to help her compete against Bernie Sanders in the primaries and win over his supporters in the general election. But I think it’s fair to say that she hasn’t been anywhere near as guilty as Trump of defying economic reality on the campaign trail,” he wrote in the letter.
According to Marks, one of the biggest economic issues the US faces is the impact of automation, which he called a “much stronger force than the job losses we hear about in this election season.”
“I despair about where the Americans who worked in agriculture a hundred years ago in the South and then moved to Midwest to makes cars and appliances 50 years ago — I wonder, I worry about where they are going to find jobs. And this is a question that is not easily solved,” Marks said at the Bloomberg event.
Going forward, Marks expects the US to grow more slowly than in the past.
“I do think that we will grow more slowly in the future than we have in the past. And I believe that … will make it harder for government to do things,” he said, asking “Why did we live so well 60 years ago?… Why can’t you do that today? Why can’t you build infrastructure in this country?”
He cited declining growth rate and globalization as reasons for the nation’s setbacks. That said, the US is in a much better situation than other parts of the world, according to Marks.
“I travel a lot and it’s clear that the US economy is the envy of the world. And so the things I’m saying are not only relevant to the US. We’re in better shape than I believe Europe or Japan, for example,” he said. “But everything is slowing down, complicated by globalization and automation.”
Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.
Read more:
Billionaire Tony Ressler: There’s ‘no doubt’ a Trump win would trigger market volatility
Ford CEO: Autonomous cars could influence society as much as Henry Ford’s assembly line
RAOUL PAL: It’s not a big storm yet, but the clouds are everywhere
Hedge fund CIO explains why returns aren’t what they used to be
Sallie Krawcheck: These are the biggest mistakes women make investing
