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Another US recession could be on the horizon in the very near future, Blackstone Group president Tony James says.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we had one in 2017,” James told Bloomberg News last week following an address at Bank of America’s banking and financial services conference in New York. “I’m turning more pessimistic now. There are a lot of headwinds facing us right now.”
Citing such factors as mounting consumer financial strain, James says most of the industrial sector—including aerospace and automotive companies—is in a recession already. In addition, he predicts no earnings growth in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index of large US companies this year.
Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein made similar remarks last month, predicting a 2018 recession, though Rubenstein didn't see any clear signs.
With $334B in assets under management, Blackstone is the world’s biggest manager of alternative assets, as well as the largest real estate owner in the world. [Bloomberg]
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