All right, here we are on overtime with the former White House communications director, podcast host and author Anthony Scaramucci, and the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and author of the book Street Wives: Getting to and Through Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein. All right, so this is for you, Lloyd. You suggested the current moment has echoes of the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. No one was more in the middle of that than you. What warning signs should we be paying more attention to?
I've read this about that you're talking about the private credit sector. Yeah, just generally private assets on the balance sheets of asset managers. Things that are illiquid, can't be marked to market.
Like private credit, in some cases like private equity, obscure securities that don't sell that get marked to what the money managers are marking them to. But since they are private, they don't transact in the market. So you really can't ascertain the true mark-to-market value. And there's some suspicion that some of these things are overmarked.
This is why this happens. I can't even understand the dumb-down explanation. I don't know.
I'm going to give... they buy...
I could have been in Chinese and it would have absolutely...
They buy that they can't properly...
What kind of... are we talking... Okay, so they loan money to a business and the business is private and no financials are disclosed and now they're guessing at what the valuation is and the markets are rocking and the economy is dipping and they probably have the position overmarked in their book and so when they start to mark down it's going to put pressure on the banks.
That didn't help anymore.
Try one more time. It's like any priesthood. They have a priesthood. They have their own little language whether they're lawyers or actual priests or financial guys. We don't know what they're saying. And then he gets...
People buy stuff and it may not be worth what they say it's worth.
Right. Okay. Well, I mean like houses. I mean that's what it was the last time.
Like stocks, like loans, like businesses, like anything. You said PE. The article I read quoted you as saying the people say the world's not leveraged but that's what they said in 2008 and then we found out about the... there was a lot of mortgage risk in Iceland.
That's literally true and it's literally true that people say this now. And the thing about a bubble, the thing about people being wrong about values is that when you're wrong, you're wrong and everybody gets caught up in it and then in hindsight, which is always 20/20, you find out that everybody was living the same dream. That's the problem, right? And so you wonder about it.
Okay. All right. Well, that was one for three, Lloyd. Here's one anyone can answer for the panel. The FBI is bringing in UFC fighters to train agents. Is there any value to this or is it just a publicity stunt? UFC fighters to train agents.
I don't know what to do about that.
FBI agents. G-men. G-men.
Yes. FBI agents. Most of whom I assume...
And was there any value to like shaking beer with more competition for Goldman Sachs and hiring interns? Huh?
I mean, it's... I put this in the category of many things with Trump, which is like I can't... there's too many things. Some you just have to let pass like a cloud. But I just can't worry about this one. I just can't.
But you know what that is? That's for the audience of one. The Kash Patel is looking at the June UFC fight and he's sending a little UFC balloon over to Trump at the White House.
But I could understand maybe SEALs or somebody who's going to be involved in hand-to-hand combat. I don't think of FBI guys as needing to be, you know, this kind of UFC fighter. I mean, I'm sure they do get into some scrappy sometimes, but I bet you some FBI agents retire just like some cops having never fired a weapon and having never had some use for this. So, I'm not sure whether it's not just performative. I'm sure it is.
You just don't take it seriously.
I don't... it's not real.
Okay. Congressman James Clyburn just announced he will seek another term at 85 years old.
It's young. You got the other guy from Iowa. He's like 97, I think. Chuck Grassley, right? I mean, he's a spring chicken, though.
No, that's the question. How old is too old to serve in Congress? I guess what they're really asking is, should we make a law about it?
I think we have to. I don't know what you think, but I think it's ridiculous. But what if in the next... what if we make a law in the next two years AI changes the game and then 85-year-olds have... you know... are...
No, it's a democracy and people can vote for whoever they want. Who's anybody to say that if the Democratic population wants to vote for somebody who's 86 years old, who's to say they're not allowed to do that?
I think that's right. Then make the case we should have no term limits and we should end the term limits. You got to have some guardrails in my opinion. So what you just said is true to an extent, but then why do we have term limits for the president?
Well, as I get older, I find a guardrail premised on old age...
Can I just answer why you have to end it? You get too much of a consolidation of power as a result of someone spending four decades in the position. And I don't think the founders wanted that. I think we need a recirculation.
Okay. Gas prices are climbing because of the Iran situation. Do you think moments like this permanently push people toward electric vehicles or is it just a short-term reaction? I mean, I've had one for a while. I mean, once you have one, it just seemed barbaric going to a gas station. You just never want to do that again.
Yeah. It's just a short-term reaction in my opinion.
Yeah. I think the problem now... eventually the technology will get better, battery lives will get better. But, you know, I want to get into a car and know that I could drive it 300 miles and don't have to have my fingers crossed that I can recharge it and have it take two hours if I do.
