Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, delivered a stark warning regarding the United States’ escalating national debt—and dollar devaluation—during a recent interview on the David Rubenstein Show. With the U.S. fiscal trajectory arguably unsustainable, Dalio predicted the burden will fall heavily on future descendants, stating: “My grandchildren and great grandchildren not yet born, are going to be paying off this debt in devalued dollars.”
A student of financial history, Dalio cited his voluminous studies of historical economic cycles. He argued when nations accumulate excessive debt—which has now grown in the U.S. to a staggering $38 trillion—they rarely resolve the issue through spending cuts or hard defaults. Instead, governments invariably turn to a “combination of devaluing the currency” and the “printing of money.”
