Barron’s Interview with the man in charge of $3.7 trillion in assets.
If it's Tuesday, it must be Beijing or Tokyo or London or Rome. Or maybe Zurich, this time, for Laurence Fink, the indefatigable, globe-trotting head of New York-based BlackRock, the largest money manager in the world. Fink is everywhere these days, visiting with clients, counseling governments and central bankers and managing a sprawling business that oversees $3.7 trillion of assets. All this has given him a unique perch from which to analyze and help shape the global financial markets.
As those markets gyrated last week—the S&P 500 fell 6.6% on Monday, wiping out around $1 trillion of value—Fink was vacationing with his family in Colorado, where he has a home. At least that was the plan. "I wouldn't call it a vacation, unfortunately," says the BlackRock CEO, one of Wall Street's biggest power players. "This week, I've been on the phone heavily with government officials, finance ministers and central bankers." On Thursday, he headed back East for meetings in Washington.
Fink also spent some time last week talking with Barron's, resuming a conversation we had begun some weeks before in BlackRock's sleek midtown Manhattan headquarters. The market's turmoil, he says, has left him discouraged about governments around the world, and their ability to do the right thing. "The markets world-wide are unsettled because of inaction and really bad results from government," he says. "We did not see leadership world-wide."
General Electric (ticker: GE), which he deems a good fundamental company whose shares have been so beaten down that they yield 3.8%. Chevron (CVX, Financial) with a 3.3% yield, is another. Ten-year Treasuries, in contrast, yield just 2.3%.
Link to remainder of article: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052702303960104576498463368504044.html?mod=djemBolTWMP_h#articleTabs_panel_article%3D1
If it's Tuesday, it must be Beijing or Tokyo or London or Rome. Or maybe Zurich, this time, for Laurence Fink, the indefatigable, globe-trotting head of New York-based BlackRock, the largest money manager in the world. Fink is everywhere these days, visiting with clients, counseling governments and central bankers and managing a sprawling business that oversees $3.7 trillion of assets. All this has given him a unique perch from which to analyze and help shape the global financial markets.
As those markets gyrated last week—the S&P 500 fell 6.6% on Monday, wiping out around $1 trillion of value—Fink was vacationing with his family in Colorado, where he has a home. At least that was the plan. "I wouldn't call it a vacation, unfortunately," says the BlackRock CEO, one of Wall Street's biggest power players. "This week, I've been on the phone heavily with government officials, finance ministers and central bankers." On Thursday, he headed back East for meetings in Washington.
Fink also spent some time last week talking with Barron's, resuming a conversation we had begun some weeks before in BlackRock's sleek midtown Manhattan headquarters. The market's turmoil, he says, has left him discouraged about governments around the world, and their ability to do the right thing. "The markets world-wide are unsettled because of inaction and really bad results from government," he says. "We did not see leadership world-wide."
General Electric (ticker: GE), which he deems a good fundamental company whose shares have been so beaten down that they yield 3.8%. Chevron (CVX, Financial) with a 3.3% yield, is another. Ten-year Treasuries, in contrast, yield just 2.3%.
Link to remainder of article: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052702303960104576498463368504044.html?mod=djemBolTWMP_h#articleTabs_panel_article%3D1
