Monday, December 7, 2009

Carlyle Co-Founder: New Healthcare Plan Will Mean Less Benefits and Higher Taxes

Carlyle Group president Davivd Rubenstein, who is also president of the Economic Club of Washington D.C. , was at today's Economic Club luncheon that featured Ben Bernanke as the speaker.

I asked Rubenstein what his people were telling him were the weakest sectors of the economy now. He told me manufacturing is very weak and that housing is still very weak.

I asked him if he was still excited about infrastructure as an investment. He said, "Yes, but these are very long term projects that take years to get off the ground."

I asked him about the healthcare sector. He pointed out that Carlyle was already a very heavy investor in the sector. He told me that as baby boomers become older that health is going to grow as a portion of GDP. I responded by asking if it wasn't true that Obamacare by forcing the young into health insurance is really setting up a situation like Social Security where it eventually won't be able to support itself. He told me, "Benefits are going to have to be cut and taxes raised."

I asked him what he thought of the end the Fed movement. He said, "It's not going to be ended in our lifetime."

1 comment:

  1. That's from the owner of MultiPlan, a huge preferred provider organization. Cutting benefits helps MultiPlan maintain its profit margins.

    I hope Rubenstein's peers willingly step up to the plate regarding "taxes raised." They've been very uncooperative regarding carried interest.

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