Legendary investor Ray Dalio warned on Tuesday that the world is “on the brink” of a capital war, amid simmering geopolitical tensions and volatile capital markets.
Speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy on stage at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Dalio said we are close to teetering into capital war territory — when money is weaponized using measures like trade embargoes, blocking access to capital markets, or using ownership of debt as leverage.
“We are on the brink,” Dalio said. “That means not in, but it means we are quite close to [capital war], and it would be very easy to go over the brink into a capital war, because there are mutual fears.”
He pointed to recent escalating tensions over the Trump administration’s push to bring Greenland — a Danish territory — under Washington’s control.
He warned of a “fear” among European holders of U.S.-denominated assets that they could be sanctioned, and that “there could be a reciprocal fear on the part of the United States that it could not get the capital, or not get the buy [from Europe],” he said.
