Howard Marks
Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management. On 6 shows, 8 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderexecutiveauthor@HowardMarksBook ↗LinkedIn ↗oaktreecapital.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Howard Marks co-founded Oaktree Capital Management in 1995, building it into a global leader in alternative investments, distressed debt, and high-yield credit. He is widely recognized for his regular investment memos, as well as bestselling books such as The Most Important Thing and Mastering the Market Cycle.
6shows
8appearances
160statements
32resolved
24supported
5contradicted
75%fully supported
133said about them ↓ Everything Howard Marks said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Howard Marks: SEC doesn't scrutinize private credit valuations and LPs prefer it
“And by the way, the SEC doesn't look at these things, because these are private investments, so they don't require accuracy. And the investors in the fund are mostly happy without accuracy, because as I said, they don't have to report problems to their higher …”
Howard Marks: Waiting for market bottoms is cover for inaction
“Oak Tree rejects the concept of waiting for the bottom. It's impossible, intellectually, to know when you're at the bottom. And I think that terms like, don't catch a falling knife, and wait for the bottom, are cover for inaction during crisis.”
Marks: A period of market distress will occur by 2025
“The bull market is 11 years old. If there's not one in the next five years, that means we'll have gone 16, which would be a record by a wide margin. So my guess is that in the next five years, we'll have a period of distress, and my hope is that Oak Tree will …”
Howard Marks claims VCs only invest in white males from Stanford
“VCs typically only invest in white males from Stanford.”
Howard Marks predicted SaaS models would inevitably transform into ICOs
“You know, for them, the SaaS business is probably the only way a software model is going to work, but it's going to transform itself into the ICO model, which is the blockchain, because it's the logical progression, you know, internet, one point O internet, tw…”
Marks: The investor who best understands AI will dominate the next decade
“Who is the person in the investment business today who will find the most success in the next 10 years? The answer is, in my opinion, the person who best understands AI and its capabilities and implications.”
Marks: Exceptional human investors will retain an edge over AI
“Neither can most people. So, so what that says is there is a role for exceptional people, even in an AI world.”
Howard Marks: Second-level thinking cannot be taught, like height in basketball
“Asking me how to become a second level thinker is like in basketball, we say you can't coach height. All the coaching in the world will not make your team taller. So can you, I can tell you that you must become a second level thinker to be successful as an inv…”
Marks: Forcing AI to generate non-consensus ideas usually leads to errors
“If you believe that consensus is as close to right as most people can get, then if you tell Claude, I only want non-consensus thinking, then it has a high probability of being wrong.”
Marks: Private credit is no longer special and is now fairly priced
“And I would say that the aspect of being undiscovered and unloved is over. It's a reasonable thing to do if you do it carefully, but I don't think it's a special strategy. It's just fairly priced.”
Marks: Private credit draws down less because valuations ignore market psychology
“Private credit and other private assets do not mark to market in the sense of reflecting the swings of psychology. When you go through a tough period and high yield bonds are down 10% and private credits down two percent, I think that's the explanation.”
Howard Marks: Private credit managers like avoiding mark-to-market accounting during downturns
“The people who run these funds Pretty much like the fact that they don't mark the market, because then in the bad times when the headlines in the papers are so negative, they don't have to go to the treasurer of the organization and say, we're down 10%. They c…”
Marks: Leveraged buyout math breaks down when borrowing costs hit 10%
“In the 20 teens, you could borrow money at six percent to do private equity deals. Now you have to pay it probably a nine to 10. Well, if you're going to buy a company and make 10 or 11% a year, you have to pay nine to 10% for the money, then a leveraged acqui…”
Marks: The post-2022 higher interest rate regime is structural and long-lasting
“I wrote a memo in December, 22, called The Sea Change, and it talked about the change in the interest rate climate, which I think is structural and long-lasting.”
Howard Marks: The Value Versus Growth Dichotomy Should Not Be Hardwired
“And by the way, when I say the value investor does this and the growth investor does that, Probably the biggest single theme of the memo was that that dichotomy should not be so hardwired.”
Howard Marks: Internet information cannot provide an investing edge
“Human knowledge is cumulative, and lately it's been rushing forward at an incredible pace, so it's hard to imagine that there's a piece of information that I can get off the internet that's going to make me any money for the simple reason that everybody else c…”
Howard Marks: Computers cannot pick the next Amazon or Steve Jobs
“I always say that I don't think that a computer can sit down with five business plans and figure out which one is Amazon in advance, or meet five CEOs and know which one is Steve Jobs.”
Howard Marks: Teaching second-level thinking is like coaching height
“People say to me, can you teach somebody to be a second level thinker? And I said, I don't know. It's kind of like asking the basketball coach to coach height. All his efforts won't make his players any taller. Some people get it, some don't.”
Howard Marks: Trimming winning investments just to lock in profit is a mistake
“This idea that as soon as there's a profit, you should take some of it off the table, seems like a huge mistake.”
Howard Marks: Managers should raise smaller funds following strong performance
“Most firms, if they have a very successful fund, will follow it up with another fund which is larger on the back of that. But if you think about it, if you had a success in a given area, the good performance of that fund is synonymous with appreciation. In oth…”
Howard Marks: Central bank interventions prevented a 2020 global depression
“With that disclaimer out of the way, first of all, nine months ago, a global depression was absolutely a possibility. With the, most of the developed countries Certainly outside of Asia, shutting down their whole economies in order to limit contacts and bend t…”
Howard Marks: Tech automation threatens long-term employment for manual laborers
“Longer term, I worry about employment, mainly because of the stuff Bill does. You know, his companies are replacing labor with computing power, to over-exaggerate. I worry about where people whose main asset is a strong back are going to get jobs in the longer…”
Marks: Record-low interest rates justify historical peak stock P/E ratios
“The lower the interest rates, the higher the asset price is justified. We have the lowest interest rates in history. That justifies, for example, the highest P.E. Ratios in history.”
The other half of the tape: Howard Marks's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 127 times in 59 episodes across the shows. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 22Bill Gurley 18Ian Charles 9Morgan Housel 8Mike Maples 7Jon Harris 7Ted Seides 5Nathan Latka 5
Statements about Howard Marks, by other people (6)
Volatility is genuine risk because it induces investors to abandon their plans
“The smartest of the smart guys say that volatility is not risk. And I strongly, strongly disagree. Because if you're, what you're really trying to do is achieve your goals in life, and the more volatile an investment is, Makes it more likely that you're going …”
Venture investors should aim to quickly become consensus and right
“You want that to be true when you make the investment, but you don't want to be very non-consensus for long. You want to quickly be consensus and right. You just don't want anybody to see it until you make that bet. But like, you don't want to make that bet an…”
Friedman: Oaktree Outpaced Early Canyon by Targeting Institutional Asset Allocation Boxes
“I remember when our good friends, Bruce Karsh and Howard Marks left Trust Company in the West to start Oak Tree and almost instantly had more capital than we did, or at least as much, and we had started a few years earlier, and part of it was that they underst…”
Batnick: Keynes wrote the best chapter on investing in history
“And he wrote, in my opinion, the best chapter ever on investing. I don't know if it's 11 or 12 in general theory, but everything that you hear from Howard Marks and all these guys really started with Keynes in this chapter.”
Warren Buffett reads Howard Marks's memos before anything else
“It was Warren Buffett himself that said once, when I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they're the first thing I open and read.”
Gurley sought macro advice from Howard Marks and Stan Druckenmiller
“Funny story, about two or three years ago, when interest rates were heading into unprecedented territory, I told my partners I needed to talk to some macro experts, and I did everything I could to find my way to Howard and Stan Druckenmiller, and I was thrille…”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 58
Capital Allocators 50
the Knowledge Project 9
Top Founders 5
Acquired 5
2026 6 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
- Mental Models That Change How You Think | Bill Gurley
- Mitchell Green: Why 50% of VCs Should Not Exist · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Anthropic's Fable Banned by US Government | Wix & Adobe Hit All-Time Lows | Mistral Raising at $20BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Why You Need a $1B Fund To Do Series A | SpaceX at $2TRN & Data Centers in Space | Groq's $20BN Deal · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2026, scene by scene →
2025 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2024 18 mentions in 7 episodes 3 per episode
- Morgan Housel – Same as Ever (EP.359)
- 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
- David Salem - Investment Wisdom from the Owner's Box (EP.409)
- Best of 2024: The Blueprint for a Transformative New Year
- Mike Maples Jr. - Identifying Startup Pattern Breakers (EP.406)
- Michael Eisenberg: How China Could Overtake the US in the AI Race | E1167 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Morgan Housel: Get Rich, Stay Rich
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 7 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
- Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Scooter Braun on Being Enough, Insecurity, Wealth, Investing, Fame, Marriage and Much More | E1002 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Charlie Munger (Audio) · Acquired
- Mike Maples: Lessons from SVB; Crisis Management Tips; USD's Status as the Reserve Currency | E993 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- John-Austin Saviano – Emerging Managers and IC Governance (Capital Allocators, EP.294)
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2022 17 mentions in 12 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: 13 of the Great Investing Minds on When to Pay Up vs When To Remain Disciplined and Walk Because the Price is too High: The Ultimate Guide to Price Sensitivity
- 20VC: Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney on Why "Only the Niche Will Survive" in Crypto, How Governments and Central Banks Retain Control in a World of Decentralised Finance & The Winners and Losers in Crypto Exchanges and NFTs
- Benchmark Part I · Acquired
- Enron · Acquired
- Colin Smith and Farouk Miah - Empty Rooms: Investing in Africa (Capital Allocators, EP. 279)
- Julio Vasconcellos: Scaling to $100M and 1,200 Employees and then Cratering | 20VC #928 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.264)
- Josh Friedman – Master Class in Credit Investing at Canyon (Capital Allocators, EP.263)
- 4 more episodes that year, every mention in 2022 →
2021 26 mentions in 10 episodes 3 per episode
- Ian Charles & Doc O'Connor – Investing in Sports Teams at Arctos Sports Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.225)
- 20VC: Bill Gurley and Michael Eisenberg on The First Signs of an Impending Bust, What Happens with a Market Crash, How Do Public Markets Impact Private Valuations & The Biggest Lessons from 20 Years Investing in Venture
- How this SaaS Raised $2.4m Crowdfunding at $10m Valuation
- Friends Reunion – Five Allocators Riff on Investing (Capital Allocators, EP.215)
- Ted with Patrick O'Shaughnessy – Lessons from the World's Elite Money Managers (Capital Allocators, EP.184)
- Not Boring (with Packy McCormick) - Extended Cut · Acquired
- Eli Casdin – Casdin Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.02)
- 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2021 →
2020 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Portfolio Construction, Optimising SPVs, Opportunity Investing "Between Rounds", Being Distribution-Centric Over Product-Centric and Capital Concentration Within Funds With Sumeet Gajri, Chief Strategy Officer @ Carta
- 20VC: Upfront's Mark Suster on COVID Redefining What A Great Company Looks Like and What Valuations Look Like, Why Pay-To-Play Is Back On The Table & Why We Will See The Death of Party Rounds
- 20VC: How To Assess Risk and Value Creation, Why It Would Be Better If VCs Had Smaller Portfolios & How To Optimise Internal Decision-Making with Misha Esipov, Founder & CEO @ Nova Credit
- Greg Fleming – Building and Running Rockefeller Capital Management (Capital Allocators, EP.125)
- 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
- 20VC: Why Now Is The Hardest Time To Raise an Institutional Pre-Seed in the Last Decade, What To Do When The Founder and VC Interests Do Not Align & The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds with Gaurav Jain, Founder & Managing Partner @ Afore Capital
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 27 mentions in 8 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: Ash Fontana on The 5 Core Characteristics That Make Data Valuable, What VCs Can Learn From Italian Craftsmen and Howard Marks & The Importance of Vertical Integration In Scaling Today
- 20VC: Benchmark's Bill Gurley on 5 Traits Benchmark Look For When Adding To The Partnership, Why The Abundance of Capital Is Today's Biggest Challenge in VC & The Right Way To Think About Market Size When Assessing Opportunities
- #67 Jim Collins: Keeping the Flywheel in Motion
- Tim Recker - Concentration at the James Irvine Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.100)
- Jon Harris – Investing in People at AIM (Capital Allocators, EP.105)
- 1431 CRM for Speakers Passes $30k in MRR
- Ash Williams – Florida SBA's Reigning Chief (Capital Allocator, EP.104)
- Ron Biscardi – Putting Hedge Funds in Context (Capital Allocators, EP.83)
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 9 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
- James Williams – Curating The Getty's Assets (Capital Allocators, EP.50)
- Mark Baumgartner – Luck, Risk and Uncertainty at the Institute for Advanced Study (Capital Allocators, EP.77)
- Brian Portnoy – From Complex to Simple (Capital Allocators, EP.57)
- Tom Bushey – Launching a Hedge Fund (Capital Allocators EP.78)
- Michael Batnick - The Best Investors and Their Biggest Mistakes (Capital Allocators, EP.71)
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Howard's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 3 | 50 | 86% 12/14 | full record on 20VC → |
 WTFLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 31 | 50% 2/4 | full record on WTF is with Nikhil Kamath → |
| KNOWLEDGE PROJECTLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 26 | 100% 4/4 | full record on the Knowledge Project → |
| CAPITAL ALLOCATORSLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 24 | 80% 4/5 | full record on Capital Allocators → |
| ACQUIREDLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 18 | 0% 0/1 | full record on Acquired → |
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management | 1 | 11 | 50% 2/4 | full record on Top Founders → |