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 Streetwise: Getting To and Through Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein.
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 read this about... You're talking about the private credit sector? Just generally... private assets on the balance sheets of asset managers, things that are illiquid, can't be mark-to-market, and so...
What is that? Like what? What does that mean?
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 shit happens. I can't even understand the... I can't even understand the... dumbed down explanation.
I don't know. They buy shit that they can't...
That could have been in Chinese and I would've had absolutely no clue. They buy shit that they can't properly appraise. What kind of shit are we talking about?
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 over-marked in their book, and so when they start to mark it down it's going to put pressure on the banks.
That didn't help anymore.
O for two. O for two, Lloyd. Try it one more time.
It's like any priesthood. In a priesthood, they have their own little language whether they're the lawyers or actual priests or financial guys. We don't know what they're saying, and then we get screwed. People buy stuff, and it may not be worth what they say it's worth.
Well, I mean, like houses? I mean, that's what it was the last time.
Like stocks, like loans... businesses... like businesses, like anything.
You said... The article I read quoted you as saying, 'People say the world's not leveraged,' but that's what they said in 2008. And then we found out...
...about... there was a lot of mortgage risk in Iceland.
Is that... Literally there was?
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.
That was one for three, Lloyd. We're one for three.
Here's one anyone can answer for the panel. 'The FBI is...' (laughs) '...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.
FBI agents, G-men, G-men. Yes, FBI agents. Most of whom, I assume... And was there any value to Kash Patel, like, shaking beer with the... That's more competition for Goldman Sachs and hiring interns, huh?
It's absurd. I mean, 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. I just can't worry about this one. I just can't. It's like... But you know what that is. That's for the audience of one. Kash Patel's looking at the June UFC fight, and he's sending a little UFC balloon over to Trump at the White House. That's what that is.
I could understand maybe Navy 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 shit sometimes, but I bet you some FBI agents retire, just like some cops, having never fired a weapon and having never had use for this, so I'm not sure whether it's not just performative.
I'm sure it is. Just don't take it seriously. I don't. Um... It's not real.
Okay. 'Congressman James Clyburn just announced he will seek another term at 85 years old.'
Well, it's young. You got the other guy from Iowa who's like 97. I think Chuck Grassley, right? He's... He's a spring chicken.
Well, that's the question. 'How old is too old to serve in Congress?' I guess what they're really asking is, 'Do 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 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. That's correct. Then make the case that we should have no term limits. That we should end the term limits.
You've 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... a guardrail premised on old age should be tossed off.
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.
Uh, '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 seems barbaric going to a gas station. You just never want to do that again.
It's just a... It's just a short-term reaction, in my opinion.
