Billionaire who predicted 2008 crash warns America nearing 'civil war'

Billionaire hedge fund titan Ray Dalio, who famously predicted the 2008 financial crash, has sounded the alarm once again, warning that America is edging toward a 'civil war of some sort' with deep political, economic, and social rifts threatening to tear the nation apart.

In a stark interview with Bloomberg, the Bridgewater Associates founder - the world's biggest hedge fund - said that the United States and much of the world are already engaged in multiple overlapping conflicts - not all of them fought with weapons.

'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,' Dalio said.

'And so we have a civil war of some sort which is developing in the US and elsewhere, where there are irreconcilable differences.' 

Dalio's remarks, highlighted by Newsweek, paint a grim portrait of an America fracturing from within as its global dominance fades. 

The billionaire said the forces that historically drive major societal shifts are now all under pressure at once: money, internal order and disorder, geopolitics, natural forces, and technological change.

Dalio, whose Bridgewater hedge fund is the world's largest, has long warned that soaring national debt and widening inequality could tip the US into crisis. 

He noted that the federal debt, now nearly $38 trillion, and the country's debt-to-income ratio of around 120 percent could soon make it impossible for the government to meet its obligations without slashing essential services.

He cautioned that the US could face a self-reinforcing economic collapse, saying unsustainable debt could trigger what he called a 'death spiral' - a feedback loop where higher interest costs lead to even greater borrowing and instability.

'If you take the most analogous period, 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,' Dalio said in a disturbing comparison.

'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 added that political polarization, especially over wealth and governance, is eroding America's internal stability.

'The internal political landscape has become worryingly polarized thanks in part to rising wealth inequality,' he warned.

Dalio has made repeated warnings in recent months about the state of the US economy.

In April the billionaire spoke against Trump's decision to launch a global trade war via tariffs on America's trading partners. 

Dalio has joined a group of other bankers, analysts, and executives who believe the US is heading for a perilous economic moment. 

While he stopped short of predicting outright armed conflict, he argued the US is already suffering from a 'civil war of some sort' - one fought through politics, media, and money, rather than muskets.

He described this 'pseudo civil war' as a reflection of 'irreconcilable differences' between rival factions - an era when institutions falter, discourse breaks down, and disorder seeps into every corner of governance.

'We're in wars,' he reiterated. 'There is a financial, money war... there's a technology war... and a civil war of some sort developing in the US and elsewhere.'

Dalio's analysis extends beyond America's borders. He argues that the same historical forces reshaping the US are transforming the global order - from the rise of China and the decline of Western dominance.

'The forces which shape the world,' Dalio said, 'are all now being disrupted, and America serves as a prime example of this.'