Dalio: Conflict Gauge Highest Since WWII

Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, said a gauge his firm created to measure the level of global conflict is at its highest level in more than 70 years, according to an article in Bloomberg.

In an interview with CNN, Dalio said, “There is more polarity, more conflict internally, of a sort.” In 2017, Dalio warned that populism will be a more powerful force than monetary or fiscal policies, the article reports, with politics affecting markets as they did in 1937. While in the past Dalio has warned that inequality in the U.S could generate more conflict, in the CNN interview he cautioned that the issue transcends the U.S.

“If you look at Brazil,” Dalio argued, “if you look at Mexico and if you look at many countries right now, worldwide, you see that there is more political extremism. It’s a negative for the economy.”