Why Larry Fink thinks everything is fine (And why you shouldn’t)

Let me set the scene for you: Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the man managing more money than any of us could dream of, just did an interview where he basically declared that everything is fine. The world may be teetering on the edge of chaos, but don’t worry, because Larry is here to tell you that the capital markets have everything under control.

Which, honestly, is a bit like hearing the captain of the Titanic reassuring everyone that the ship is unsinkable—right before it hits an iceberg.

Fink wants you to believe that while there may be wars, inflation, supply chain issues, and political instability, none of it really matters because we’re all moving toward an era of massive infrastructure investment.

Forget about Trump, forget about Harris, and definitely don’t think too hard about that global chaos on the horizon, because Fink assures us that private capital will save the day. Infrastructure, people! Infrastructure! It’s going to fix everything!

Let’s pause and take a breath here.

Yes, infrastructure is important. We need bridges that don’t collapse, roads that don’t look like the surface of the moon, and energy systems that don’t crap out when you plug in a hairdryer. But the way Fink talks about it, you’d think infrastructure investment is a magical cure-all for the planet’s woes.

Got a geopolitical crisis? Throw some private capital at it! Inflation through the roof? Infrastructure, baby! Climate change making cities uninhabitable? You guessed it—build more stuff!

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t invest in infrastructure. Of course we should.

But Fink makes it sound like the entire future of humanity hinges on some glorified construction projects. Meanwhile, he seems to downplay the fact that many of these projects will inevitably get wrapped up in politics. If you’ve ever lived in a city where they’re trying to build anything as simple as a new bus route, you know that infrastructure is political. Fink casually brushes this off, claiming that if one country politicizes a project, the capital will just “move somewhere else.”

How convenient. If one place decides to prioritize, say, worker safety or environmental protections, private capital will just shrug and move to the next place where there aren’t so many pesky regulations. But hey, who cares, right? It's all about growth.

Speaking of growth, Fink is incredibly bullish on the idea that the U.S. economy will just keep chugging along at a smooth 2–3% growth rate. No hard landing, no soft landing, just endless growth. This is where you really have to admire the audacity.

We’re talking about an economy where half the country is one bad month away from defaulting on their student loans, where wages haven’t kept up with inflation for decades, and where the wealth gap has turned into a yawning chasm. But no worries, Larry assures us it’s all going to be just fine. The economy will keep growing because, apparently, it has no other choice.

Let’s also not forget his take on China.

Fink, ever the optimist, thinks China is going through a bit of a rough patch, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a little monetary policy. Never mind the fact that China’s real estate market is teetering on the brink of collapse or that their massive state-owned enterprises are barely limping along.

Fink seems to think they’ll figure it out. And if they don’t? Well, private capital will just head over to India, the Philippines, Vietnam, or Mexico—places he assures us are the new darlings of the global supply chain. It's all just one big game of musical chairs, and when the music stops, BlackRock will still be sitting pretty, no matter which country gets left standing.

Now, let’s get to the political part of this spectacle because, of course, there’s always a political angle. Fink has the diplomatic skills of a UN ambassador, refusing to take sides between Trump and Harris (and yes, he refers to Kamala Harris as "President Harris" because apparently we’re all just living in his alternate reality).

To him, it doesn’t matter who’s in charge because the U.S. will stay strong either way. That’s rich, considering one of these candidates is actively trying to dismantle democratic institutions, and the other is trying to hold the country together with duct tape and good intentions. But sure, let’s pretend the outcome of the 2024 election doesn’t really matter. It’s just another little hiccup on the road to inevitable economic dominance.

Let’s be clear: Fink is not wrong to point out that the global economy is shifting, but the way he talks about it, you’d think this is all just a natural, inevitable process.

As if the billions of people who will be affected by these shifts are just small pieces in the grand game of private capital moving freely from place to place, seeking out the next big opportunity. It’s as though the economic collapse of entire regions is just a minor inconvenience, something that can be smoothed over with enough money and the right investments in infrastructure.

Here’s the part that really gets me: Fink talks about systemic risk as if it’s a thing of the past. According to him, we’ve “diffused” risk by spreading it across more markets, more investments, and more players. Isn’t that cute? It’s like saying we’ve solved the problem of house fires by building more houses.

Sure, if one burns down, the others are still standing, but if you don’t address the root cause of the fire, eventually the whole neighborhood is going up in flames. Fink seems blissfully unaware (or maybe just indifferent) to the fact that the very mechanisms that supposedly “diffuse” risk—like private credit and infrastructure investment—are often the same ones that exacerbate inequality and leave entire communities vulnerable to exploitation.

And don’t even get me started on his take that the U.S. economy won’t see any “landing.” Because the last time I checked, inflation is still eating into people’s savings, real wages are stagnating, and commercial real estate in major cities is tanking.

But hey, Fink’s not worried about any of that. He’s got his eye on the long game, and in the long game, private capital always wins.

So what’s going to happen?

Well, if you believe Fink, everything’s going to be fine. We’ll build more data centers, decarbonize the economy, and private capital will flow into the safest, most profitable projects, regardless of the political or social fallout.

But if you’re a little more skeptical, like me, you might see things differently. You might see a world where the rich get richer, the poor get left behind, and the infrastructure boom benefits a select few while leaving others to pick up the pieces.

So here’s my question for you: Are we really on the verge of a new golden age of infrastructure, or are we just watching a bubble inflate, waiting for it to pop?

What do you think—is Larry Fink’s endless optimism a sign of confidence or just the calm before the storm?

Let’s see how this one plays out, shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd2XvMTPWh4