Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman took to Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) Monday morning to share his advice for President Joe Biden on what could be done to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What Happened: The Pershing Square CEO shared a long thread and found himself trending in the political section of the social media platform.
“Is there a point at which we say it is un-American to sit back and watch this transpire?” Ackman asked the tagged account of President Biden while discussing the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Ackman said we're simply fighting an economic war with Russia and supplying weapons with our allies and watching from the sidelines.
“Put is rallying the nuclear saber as he gets more desperate. Do we wait for him to kill millions before we intervene?”
Ackman argued no one wants to put American lives at risk, and it’s easier for him to support sending troops into the conflict, since he has no children in the military. “But our lives are already at risk if Putin gets his way.”
Ackman also referenced that the U.S. didn't stop Russia from invading Crimea and Georgia. “Here we have an opportunity to set a real red line and establish for future generations what it means and what America stands for.”
“We can’t sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and perhaps millions to die. I don’t want to live in that world and you don’t either,” he added.
Ackman ends the thread by saying it's in Biden’s hands to fix the errors of the past and protect the future.
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Why It’s Important: One of Ackman’s key arguments was how an economic war is being fought by selectively shutting down the Russian banking system, noting that, "We are not using every economic means at our disposal." The hedge fund manager argued that more could be done to fight the country economically without outlining additional steps.
Ackman said the U.S. should use “every economic lever” the country has to shut down all Russian banks and also provide the Ukrainians with “everything they need to fight.”
Ackman is a strong voice in the investing community. His comments could show a belief that Biden isn't doing enough to reflect the U.S. support for Ukraine, although his voice is likely to have no influence on Biden and the U.S. military.
The billionaire investor has historically placed massive investments on the overall market to either go up or down, and he could be trying to get a feeling for how the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) will react to heavier U.S. involvement.
Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Army Southern Europ on Flickr
