A couple of weeks ago, we noted that Bridgewater Associates was having some problems: Not only had an arbitrator ruled that it could neither control its former employees for the entirety of their natural lives and possibly beyond, nor make shit up to further that end in a quasi-legal proceeding, but its two favorite countries are having some problems.
“There’s a trade war, there’s a technology war, there is a geopolitical war and there could be a capital war,” Dalio said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“If you say by law ‘Don’t invest in China,’ or even possibly withholding the payment of bonds that the United States owes payment on in China — these things are possibilities, and they have big implications, such as for the value of the dollar,” he said….
“The things I worry about the most are the soundness of our money,” Dalio said. “You can’t continue to run deficits, sell debt or print money rather than be productive and sustain that over a period of time.”
Which leads up to another critical issue facing Bridgewater, which is that it’s losing money hand over fist. Luckily for the hedge fund, unlike the developing Sino-American cold war, there’s something Dalio & co. can do about that. First, they can sell more books.
Dalio — the founder and co-chairman of the world’s biggest hedge fund — fired off three tweets opining on the importance of building “meaningful relationships” at work to get through “challenging times.”
The tweets are based on teachings from Dalio’s book of life and management philosophies “Principles,” which preaches “radical truth” and “radical transparency” with colleagues in order to promote better work outcomes. The book has sold well since it was first published in 2017
Second, they can shitcan people. (Loyalty is apparently very much a one-way street in Westport.)
Bridgewater Associates has laid off several dozen employees across the company this month, an unusually large cut at the world’s largest hedge-fund firm.
The layoffs affected Bridgewater’s research department and client-services team as well as among its recruiters. The cuts also affected the firm’s “audit groups” that assess the performance of employees in various departments, and its “core management team”—a management training program conceived by founder Ray Dalio. Bridgewater veterans of more than 15 years were among those laid off in Zoom meetings and given several days’ notice.
Finally, they found one particularly lucrative way to economize.
Bridgewater told Murray on July 14 in writing that her public disclosures of her dispute with the firm would result in a forfeiture of her deferred compensation…. The withheld compensation is estimated to be in the range of $20 million to $100 million, due over the course of the next decade.
Ah, yes, Bridgewater’s famous commitment to radical transparency—enshrined as Principle No. 6 in the aforementioned book Dalio would love it if you bought—in action once more. And, thanks to Murray’s lawsuit over the matter, another opportunity to see Bridgewater’s defense against such allegations, which we imagine will involve Greg Jensen testifying that he doesn’t need any other evidence while waving around a VHS tape with “Eileen Lies” scrawled on the side.
Murray, who stepped down as co-CEO earlier this year, said in the suit that the circumstances surrounding her departure had given rise to substantial claims by her against Bridgewater based on gender discrimination, unequal pay and breach of contract…. In the suit, Murray, who was one of the highest-ranking female executives in the industry as co-CEO of the hedge fund, called Bridgewater’s attempt to withhold the deferred pay an “improper gambit to silence her voice” and “part of a cynical plan to intimidate and silence her.”
Hedge fund Bridgewater Associates sued by former co-CEO Murray [Reuters]
Ray Dalio Warns of U.S.-China ‘Capital War’ That Would Hit Dollar [Bloomberg]
Ray Dalio promotes his book amid layoffs at Bridgewater [Thornton/N.Y. Post]
Bridgewater Associates Lays Off Several Dozen Employees [WSJ]