Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus is urging Americans to “wake up” to the reality that the U.S. economy is heading into a meltdown following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
“I can’t wait for [President Joe] Biden to get on the speech again and talk about how great the economy is and how it’s moving forward and getting stronger by the day,” Marcus told Fox News.
“And this is an indication that whatever he says is not true,” he said.
“And maybe the American people will finally wake up and understand that we’re living in very tough times, that, in fact, that a recession may have already started. Who knows? But it doesn’t look good,” Marcus added.
The warning issued by Home Depot founder comes days after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, marking the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history since the 2008 financial crisis.
On Monday, Joe Biden tried to calm the markets by insisting the “banking system is safe.”
“Americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe,” Biden said during his address on Monday.
But Biden warned investors in the now collapsed banks would not be protected, saying they “knowingly took a risk, and when the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money.”
When reporters asked Biden about the bank collapse’s possible ripple effect, he ignored their questions.
Billionaire Hedge Fund boss Bill Ackman echoed Bernie Marcus’s remarks, warning of a complete economic meltdown.
“Our economy will not function effectively without our community and regional banking system. Therefore, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation needs to explicitly guarantee all deposits now. Hours matter,” Ackman warned.
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Marcus said the bank failed due to adopting “woke” policies.
“I feel bad for all of these people that lost all their money in this woke bank. You know, it was more distressing to hear that the bank officials sold off their stock before this happened. It’s depressing to me,” Marcus said.
“Who knows whether the Justice Department would go after them? They’re a woke company, so I guess not. And they’ll probably get away with it,” he added.
The home Depot founder also blamed the Biden administration for pushing banks into being “more concerned about global warming.”
“These banks are badly run because everybody is focused on diversity and all of the woke issues and not concentrating on the one thing they should, which is shareholder returns,” he said.
“Instead of protecting the shareholders and their employees, they are more concerned about the social policies. And I think it’s probably a badly run bank,” he said.
“They’ve been there for a lot of years. It’s pathetic that so many people lost money that won’t get it back.”
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