In a recent interview, Wall Street veteran George Ball, a former crypto skeptic, explained why he believes that many wealthy investors and traders people will be looking at Bitcoin after Labor Day (September 7).
George L. Ball currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sanders Morris Harris (SMH), which is “a privately owned, dually registered broker dealer and RIA firm established in 1987.” He is also Director and Co-Chairman of Tectonic Holdings, SMH’s parent company,
He started his career as a stockbroker at E.F. Hutton & Co., and was President there between 1977 and 1982. He left E.F. Hutton in July 1982 to become the CEO of Prudential-Bache Securities (later renamed to Prudential Securities, which he ran until February 1991.
On Friday (August 14), Ball gave an interview to Fred Katayama—a news anchor for Reuters Television—during which he talked about Bitcoin.
Katayama started the interview by asking Ball why he thinks that now is the time for people to take a look at their portfolios and potentially make some adjustments.
Ball answered:
“Well, the market right now is what people want to call ‘the summer doldrums’…
“COVID will be with us through the first quarter of next year; there will be a vaccine.
“You’ve got a wash of liquidity, which is really what’s driving and holding the stock market up right now…
“… the market’s… waiting for a new spark, and that spark’s likely to come into ignite — as it often does — right after Labor Day. So, the time to reposition the portfolio is before the fuse is lit or when the fuse is lit but has not exploded yet, which is probably now.”
Katayama then wanted to know what moves investors should be making right now.
Ball replied:
“I think that both traders and investors are going to worry about what happens when you can’t kick the can down the road in terms of stimulus or subsidizing people any longer, and the approach at the end of that road is going to be a lot closer by the fourth quarter than it is now, and therefore both traders and investors should and probably will realign their portfolios substantially.”
Katayama then asked Ball what assets, other than equities, people should be looking at.
Ball said:
“I’ve never said this before, and I’ve always been a blockchain, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin opponent, but if you look right now, the government can’t stimulate the markets forever.
“The liquidity flood will end. Sooner or later, the government’s got to start paying for some of these stimulus or some of the deficits or some of the well-deserved very smart subsidies that it’s providing for people.
“Are they going to raise taxes that high or if not are they going to print money?
“If they print money, that that debases the currency, and probably even things like TIPS—Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities—can be corrupted.
“So, the very wealthy investor or the trader probably turns to Bitcoin or something like it as a staple.
Ball also mentioned Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, in connection with Bitcoin:
“Jamie is at least a partial convert. I’m not sure that he’s a total convert.”
Finally, he had this to say about traders on American trading platform Robinhood:
“If the currency becomes worthless or at least if enough Robinhooders happen to believe that… If the Robinhooders don’t want to trade stocks as they have, where are they going to to put their money?
“There are no yields today, and so Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency becomes a very attractive either a long-term ‘i want a safe haven for my money’ or a short-term speculative bet, and I think it’s where many people will turn after Labor Day.”
On Saturday (August 15), Dan Tapiero, Founder of DTAP Capital, had this to say about this Wall Street veteran finally becoming a believer in Bitcoin:
Featured Image by “SnapLaunch” via Pixabay.com
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
