Co-CEO Erik Hirsch appeared on CNBC Squawk Box Europe share his thoughts on the current global macro issues, the US economy and more.
What Erik Hirsch said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Erik Hirsch, co-CEO of Hamilton Lane, discussed the US economy, inflation, market concentration, private credit, and the Fed. He said inflation pressures extend beyond energy, affecting real goods and services, and described a K-shaped consumer base where the top end drives spending while the bottom suffers. He noted market concentration is at historical levels, comparable to the late 1960s and early 1970s, but today's top stocks are correlated and self-dealing. On private credit, Hirsch said Hamilton Lane avoids hyperscaler lending, preferring traditional businesses like dental practice rollups, and argued that retail nervousness is headline-driven, with default rates sub 2% and declining. Regarding Kevin Warsh's Fed nomination, he said it's 'to be determined' whether Warsh will stay independent or follow the administration's push for lower rates, and highlighted the challenge of bridging economic divides.
Key takeaways
Default rates in private credit are sub 2% and declining, despite retail nervousness driven by headlines.
Hamilton Lane is not investing in hyperscaler private credit, preferring traditional businesses like dental practice rollups.
Market concentration is at historical levels, more concentrated than the late 1960s and early 1970s, with correlated top stocks.
Kevin Warsh's Fed leadership is 'to be determined' on whether he'll stay independent or follow the administration's push for lower rates.
0:10My goodness, so much going on. Where to begin?
2:27But there's an inherent risk there, isn't there?
3:19And you know, as one of the biggest players in the private credit space, do you still see the hyperscaler opportunity as one that is appealing when you're looking at where to invest?
4:31Are you seeing any sort of nervousness among your clients?
That is the question. And let's start with that inflation print and what implications that has for the US economy, because this seems to suggest the price pressures go beyond just energy.
They absolutely are. I mean, we're seeing inflation across real goods. You're seeing it across services. And I think Powell is walking into a tough situation. He's going to have a president who loves lower rates and is going to want to be pushing and sometimes yelling. But yet when you look at the data, that inflation figure is not backing off and the consumer is definitely feeling it. The issue in the US though is you have a massive disconnect across the consumer base. The top end of the consumer is driving the economy single-handedly. They're benefiting from a lot of this. As you just said, record stock prices, real estate prices inflating, commodities inflating, and yet the bottom part of the consumer is really suffering. And so what we see is kind of this K-shape of just total disconnect between the spending levels.
Indeed, indeed. You can go down a rabbit hole, but I think it was Warren Buffett, one of the clips that I was watching the other day. He's referencing the fact that at some point we will look back on some of the pricing and the valuations at the moment and think, goodness, those were such silly levels. How come we didn't see a pullback coming?
Well, I think given all that's happening geopolitically, particularly with the strait remaining closed, the market should be coming down. And yet, right now, there's kind of a blinder aspect on and it's saying, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Now, a lot of that is because of AI and this huge wind at the back. And when you look at what's pulling a lot of the economy, yes, we're seeing good stock results from a lot of industrial and manufacturing businesses, but it continues to be the tech sector that is just driving everything forward. And I think there's so much optimism about that. Look at the chip sector for example, just absolutely on fire, that all of that is sort of ignoring or able to ignore what's happening around the globe right now.
We are at historical levels for that, truly historical levels. You have to go back into the late 60s, early 70s to see something even comparable. And right now this is even more concentrated than that. But back in the late 60s, early 70s, and that's a long time ago, those top 10 exposures that were kind of the bulk of the market were completely diversified and non-correlated from each other. You had Exxon and IBM. Well, those weren't in the same sectors. Whereas today, not only are they correlated, but as you know and have reported on, there's a whole lot of self-dealing back and forth across these entities investing in each other. This I invest in you, you invest in me. And so it's not likely that we're going to see a huge disconnect there.
And you know, as one of the biggest players in the private credit space, do you still see the hyperscaler opportunity as one that is appealing when you're looking at where to invest?
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Hirsch, E. (2026, May 19). Erik Hirsch on CNBC Squawk Box Europe [Interview transcript]. Hamilton Lane. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917099/
MLA
Erik Hirsch. "Erik Hirsch on CNBC Squawk Box Europe." Hamilton Lane, 19 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917099/.
BibTeX
@misc{hirsch2026_917099,
author = {Erik Hirsch},
title = {Erik Hirsch on CNBC Squawk Box Europe},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Hamilton Lane. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917099/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
