Washington
CNN
—
Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s barrage of policy changes is paralyzing American consumers and businesses — and that’s already hurting the economy.
“The collective impact in the short run is that people are pausing, they’re pulling back,” Fink told CNN’s Kayla Tausche in an exclusive interview. “Talking to CEOs throughout the economy, I hear that the economy is weakening as we speak.”
President Donald Trump on Wednesday forged ahead with his aggressive tariff agenda, imposing 25% duties on all steel and aluminum imports — which was met with swift retaliation from the European Union and Canada. Meanwhile, his administration continues to overhaul the federal workforce, laying off nearly half of the staff at the US Department of Education on Tuesday.
Fink said the uncertainty sowed by the Trump administration’s drastic changes is broad-based, unsettling companies and federal workers alike — and it remains to be seen whether that will worsen, he said.
“All of these things have that ripple effect, and we will see over a long cycle whether this ripple effect gets worse or does it stabilize,” he said.
Fink also told CNN his firm’s landmark purchase of two ports at either end of the Panama Canal was not political in nature and emphasized on his belief that there isn’t enough attention to what he describes as America’s retirement “crisis.”
Nevertheless, Fink said the Trump administration’s policies “can be very productive for the United States” in the long run. That includes the tariffs, he said.
“Right now the president is focusing on tariffs, but when he talks about reciprocal tariffs, actually, that may bring down tariffs over the long run,” Fink said.
Last month, Trump directed his administration to investigate the tariffs foreign countries impose on the United States and promised that he will match them, dollar for dollar. A global trade war, started by Trump, is already in full swing: In addition to Wednesday’s metal tariffs, the Trump administration has already doubled the tariffs on China to 20%, on top of existing duties.
In addition to intense uncertainty, Wall Street has been rattled by signs of a sputtering economy. Fink said it’s possible that the US economy could stagnate, but he said it would likely be short lived.
“Could we have one quarter or two quarter of a flattening of our economy as we try to reset the economy? Absolutely,” Fink said. “But I’m looking beyond that. If we are able to unlock private capital… that will restart and rekindle the next wave of a bull market.”
He also wasn’t fazed by the stock market’s rout this week.
“There’s nothing wrong with a market pullback,” Fink said. “I look at that as a buying opportunity because I’m very bullish on America.”
On the Panama Canal and America’s retirement crisis
Fink also weighed in on his firm’s takeover of two Panama Canal ports, a key waterway that facilitates hundreds of billions of dollars in trade annually, and the implications of Americans not saving enough for retirement.
“The decision was purely economic, and we believe this is going to be great long term investment,” Fink said. “My conversation with the president was positive, it was optimistic… but if it was four months earlier, I would have been calling the prior administration.”
Some of the canal operations being controlled by a Chinese firm had long angered Trump, and it was a topic he mentioned in his inaugural address in January, in which he said, “We’re taking it back.”
BlackRock’s deal with a consortium of fellow investors aims to spend $22.8 billion to buy 43 ports around the world, including the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on either end of the canal from CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong company. They said the deal is an “agreement in principle.”
In a recent letter to investors, Fink said there isn’t enough attention being paid to Americans not having enough savings for retirement, calling it a “crisis.”
“I think some so much of this anxiety that we have in this country is all about the fear of retirement,” he said. “We see less mobility in America because people have to stay closer to their family because of inadequacy of savings.”
