Thanks to The Federal Reserve's extreme monetary policy, "the prospective return of asset classes is very narrow," warns Bridgewater's Ray Dalio, with expected returns for equities of "only about 4 percent." This is a problem, he explains in this brief clip, as monetary policy relies on that transmission mechanism of apparent wealth creation to keep the dream alive. In Europe and Japan there is no "spread", Dalio notes, and in the US it is miniscule - which means monetary policy is practically ineffective. While he believes in the short-term, the US economy can maintain stability (not commenting on the market per se), his "biggest concern is when the next downturn comes in 1-2 years," the central bank must be on the 'tighter' side of market expectations to be capable of providing its life-giving elixir once again. Simply put, Dalio sums up "there is always a downturn" - something that no Wall Street economist is expecting.
