- Surging government debt could trigger a "heart attack" for the US financial system, Ray Dalio said.
- The Bridgewater founder said years of deficit spending were causing "plaque" to accumulate.
- The elite investor said a failure to act could spell trouble for markets and the dollar.
Ray Dalio sounded the alarm on America's soaring debt, warning the US must act before it suffers the financial equivalent of a "heart attack."
The billionaire investor said "debt accumulates like plaque" in a financial system, and that poses a "problem" for governments as interest payments eat up more and more of their budgets.
The founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, was interviewed by Tucker Carlson at the World Governments Summit in Dubai earlier this month.
Dalio compared himself to a doctor telling a patient about a plaque buildup: "You're in a high risk of this heart attack, essentially, and now what are you going to do about it?"
The mentor to Bridgewater's three co-chief investors said it was vital to take action — such as exercising more — while the patient was still in good health. "Don't wait for this to happen and then try to make it better," Dalio said.
The federal government spent about $6.75 trillion last fiscal year but only collected $4.92 trillion in revenue, meaning it ran a $1.8 trillion deficit, according to the Treasury's website. The national debt has more than tripled since 2000 to an estimated $36.2 trillion, the website showed.
Dalio said that if the US doesn't cut its fiscal deficit from north of 6% of GDP to 3% in the next four years or so, the supply of government bonds will outstrip demand and push up interest rates, causing Treasury markets to spiral.
The author of several books about financial and economic history said that kind of "trauma" in the "backbone" of the financial system "affects all markets, and money as a storehold of wealth as we know it."
Despite Elon Musk's efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, Dalio said not enough was being done to address the debt crisis during a separate conversation at the Dubai event recorded for "The Tucker Carlson Show."
"There needs to be a game plan," Dalio said, agreeing with Carlson that the lack of one "seems crazy."
