00:00You've got some concerns. Yes, I have some concerns. I'm an investor in the world. I have a lot of
00:04concerns. It's not about the little narrow. It's not about the little narrow corner of the world that you guys
00:09call private credit. It's much broader. But same round out this morning. Pardon? Have you been annoyed by the coverage
00:15in the last few months?
00:17No, I'm not annoyed by it. I think it reminds me of when I was a young high yield trader
00:22in the early 90s. And in 1990, when Drexel went and filed and there was concerns about the high yield
00:30asset class junk bonds, you know, asset class won't survive. It's a Ponzi scheme. There's no credibility here.
00:37And I think that if I look back at that time, it was early days of the high yield market,
00:43which is now the high yield market in a legitimate asset class. I think this is just growing pains.
00:49And as I go back to my first principles, if investors over 15 years were not actually making money and
00:55I see the demographics of the globe right now where investors need robust compounding yield, I'd be concerned.
01:02But I see the great benefit of this product. I've sensed frustration.
01:06I've sensed frustration from the asset managers. You have too. I can feel it now. I've got to be honest
01:11with you. I can sense the frustration that you've got, I think, with some of the coverage over the past
01:15few months.
01:15What is it about the coverage that's been quite upsetting? The fixation on just BDCs and not the broader asset
01:21class? What is it about that's upset you and the team, maybe?
01:24Well, I've got to push back on being upset.
01:27Well, I can tell you over the last few minutes it's felt that way. Maybe not aimed directly at us,
01:32but certainly the coverage of your world.
01:34Well, again, I think that a lot because of the proliferation of the analysis in every corner of the environment
01:42we work in right now, I think that's why I had my message about taking a step back.
01:48You know, I do think when you look at the growth of the U.S. economy since 2009, the result
01:54has been we have the most robust banking system in the world.
01:59We have the leading banks that are well-run organizations that have done an amazing job, and the return on
02:06equity and their impact in the U.S. economy is profound.
02:10You also have a backdrop of economic growth that is unmatched around the globe, and I don't think it's any
02:16surprise that the advent of pushing out the risk in the banking system,
02:21the benefit of securitization, the benefit of CLOs, the benefit of all the things that institutions have helped out with,
02:29that has resulted in a much broader, deeper-based financing environment.
02:34We financed a lot of growth. We financed amazing tech growth.
02:38Our VC marketplace is the most robust in the world.
02:41And so I think that, you know, many mutual funds today, I'll give you a little analysis, many mutual funds
02:47today were very, very forward-thinking
02:51and were able to buy SpaceX several years ago.
02:55And so SpaceX is part of their portfolio, a small portion.
03:00There's probably not a clearly defined marking process on how they all mark their SpaceX equity because of employee sales,
03:12whether it's monthly, quarterly, whatever it is.
03:14But just because the marking process may be inconsistent, that shouldn't stop them from buying a great American company that
03:23they're going to do very, very well on.
03:24And so that's why I think we're sort of missing the plot about, I've talked on this show in the
03:29past about Berkshire Hathaway,
03:31about half of their portfolio being in private companies.
03:35And so I do think the whole idea of the public-private convergence, the broader portfolio approach,
03:42where the market's going in terms of these massive capex, that's where I think we've sort of lost the plot
03:49a little bit.
03:50And again, I'm not in the newspaper business, but I do think that I know what sells headlines.
03:56And I think the methodical, robust growth of the U.S. economy, the role of the public-private convergence,
04:04the strength and breadth of our financing, that's really the bigger story here.
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