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Billionaire investor Ray Dalio renewed his belief that cash makes an attractive investment, saying it’s become more appealing than stocks and bonds amid rising rates. “Cash used to be trashy. Cash is pretty attractive now,” Dalio said on CNBC’s ” Squawk Box ” Thursday. “It’s attractive in relation to bonds. It’s actually attractive in relation to stocks.” The founder of Bridgewater, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, said we are now in the 12th and a half cycle since 1945, where real interest rates have shot up on the back of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes. “Real interest rates went from minus 175 basis points to plus 175 basis points, right? You’ve got a cash rate that’s relatively high,” Dalio said. “You have the classic movement as rates go up and money becomes tied.” Dalio had been calling it “trash” since the purchasing power of cash diminishes amid rising inflation, but he had a change of heart in October as higher interest rates have led to it finally providing some return. The widely followed investor said that higher rates particularly hurt growth-oriented stocks that need to borrow in order to expand. Last year, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 33.1%, worse than the S & P 500’s 19.4% loss. Both suffered their worst year since 2008 and snapped a three-year win streak. “You lose the parts of the economy, the parts of the market that are the bubble parts that needed the cash flow. So you’re seeing it reflected in not only the long duration stocks,” Dalio said. On the topic of recession, the billionaire founder said if the U.S. tips into a downturn, it wouldn’t be so damaging. “This type of recession is not a bad recession, it’s a lot less bad than I thought it would be because of the fact of how it’s distributing and shrinking that credit,” Dalio said. Last year, Dalio stepped down as one of Bridgewater’s three co-chief investment officers and transferred all of his voting rights to the board of directors.
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