Barron's interview with Howard Marks:

YouTube: Billionaire Investor Howard Marks on Ownership vs. Debt | At Barron's (Barron's)

Highlights from the 21 minute interview with Andy Serwer:

- Discussion about Risk
- America is distinguished by the number of people with high net worth
- The balance of risk/return for high net worth people
- There are no bad assets, only bad prices (e.g. Nifty Fifty)
- The "easy" answer is to say the market is currently overvalued, but Howard stays inside his circle of competence (debt).
- Anybody coming into this business since 1980 has (virtually) only seen declining interest rates or ultra-low interest rates
- Doesn't think interest rates will stay low going forward
- When rates are too low they skew the financial markets (penalizes savers, fixed-income recipients, loaners)
- Interest rates should occur naturally without the Fed putting their thumb on the scale
- There are lender investments today that people can get a reasonable return (e.g 7%)
- "My goal is not to predict the movement of prices. It's to make loans to companies that will pay me back."
- Doesn't think private equity is in a "bubble", which he defines as excessive psychological euphoria (most things are elevated today)
- Most things are expensive today (but not "nutty") because investors are optimistic
- It's not the climate that we should look to push the risk curve