Billionaire Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, has warned that the United States may be sliding toward a new kind of internal fracture amid deepening inequality, mounting debt and a fracturing global order.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV this week, Dalio argued that multiple arenas of conflict are now unfolding simultaneously — including economic, technological, geopolitical, and military struggles. According to him, the U.S. is already witnessing “a civil war of some sort” driven by “irreconcilable differences.”
“We’re in wars. There is a financial, money war. There’s a technology war, there’s geopolitical wars, and there are more military wars. And so we have a civil war of some sort which is developing in the U.S. and elsewhere, where there are irreconcilable differences," he said, in remarks highlighted by Newsweek.
Dalio laid out what he sees as the five key forces that have guided historical change: monetary systems, internal stability and disorder, geopolitics, natural forces, and technological advancement.
He maintained that all five are now under pressure, especially as the U.S.-led world order faces growing turbulence.
One of Dalio’s greatest concerns is the swelling U.S. national debt, which now hovers near $38 trillion. He cited the country’s debt-to-income ratio, around 120 percent, as particularly troubling, suggesting that debt servicing could crowd out essential government spending and trigger a “death spiral.”
The billionaire investor also sees echoes of the late 1930s in today’s climate. “If you take the most analogous period,” he said, “I would say we’re in a period that’s quite like 1937‑38. You have a debt issue. You have the internal conflicts of wealth and how things should be run. Disorder existed — formed. Democracies stop being democracies. So we’re in a period that’s very much analogous. That’s plenty to worry about.”
Dalio stressed that the U.S. is already enduring internal strife over how wealth is distributed and how the country should be governed, and that this polarization is fueling disorder.
He warned that the internal political landscape is dangerously fragmented by rising wealth inequality and divergent visions for the future.
Dalio is not alone among economists raising concerns.
Steve Hanke, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan, has cautioned that a shrinking money supply could push the U.S. into recession.
Meanwhile, Moody’s chief economist, Mark Zandi, has flagged multiple economic indicators as “flashing red,” including signs of strain in consumer spending and labor markets.