BlackRock's Fink Warns U.S. Shouldn't Be Fighting Its Creditors

(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink issued a stark warning to U.S. President Donald Trump: don’t fight your creditors.

Fink said a gaping fiscal deficit will depend on the U.S. economy holding up. Without solid growth, the U.S. will end up with more debt and a higher risk premium.

“The problem is we are living with a deficit that is very large. We are fighting with our creditors right now worldwide,” Fink said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Wednesday.

“Generally, when you fight with your banker, it’s not a good outcome,” he said. “I wouldn’t recommend you fight with your lenders, and we’re fighting with our lenders. Forty percent of the U.S. deficit is funded by external factors. No other country has that.”

The forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

The U.S. will have a “supply problem” as the widening deficit requires more borrowing, Fink said.

“We are going to have more and more debt because of the deficits, and because of the deficits, the investors are going to demand a bigger premium,” he said. “We have greater risk for higher rates and will not allow the equity markets to flourish."

That scenario will cause problems for economic growth, he said.

“That could be the real issue related to everything: where we have interest rates becoming too high to sustain the economy with its growth rates.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Enda Curran in Hong Kong at ecurran8@bloomberg.net;Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Brett Miller

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