Opinion
Bruce Flatt: Public markets are never efficient
“The markets are never efficient. In fact, very seldom do they ever trade at the actual value of securities. Either, most of the time, they trade above or below. Very seldom do they trade at the value.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Flatt: US Business Productivity Over Next 20 Years Probably Unprecedented
“But the productivity advances we see over the next 20 years probably will be unprecedented for a period of time. Certainly one, we haven't seen it for a long time, ah, in business, ah, across America.”
Opinion
Flatt: US holds unmatched long-term dominance in tech, capital, and energy
“The long-term story of America is extremely strong because the U.S. Today has Energy, capital, and technology dominance. Energy, capital, and technology dominance. There's nobody in the world that has a technology businesses that the U.S. Has. There's nothing …”
Opinion
Flatt: Worst Real Estate Disruption From Rate Hikes Is Far Behind
“Look, over the last five years, because of COVID and because other things, and because interest rates went up by 405 hundred base points all of that disrupted the real estate market, but the worst is behind us by far. We're looking in the rearview mirror by wh…”
Prediction Open · timeframe Apr 2030
Flatt: 401(k)s and Global Retirement Plans Will Open to Alternatives
“For one case in the US are going to open up to alternatives. I think plans around the world will open up to alternatives.”
Insight
Flatt: Investment upside takes care of itself; downside risk is what matters
“Upside will always take care of itself, and whether you shoot for 16%, 22, 29, 18, none of those matter. They're all great. What's really important is what are the risks How, what can go wrong? How bad could it get? And how do we deal with it if that happens?”
Insight
Flatt: Politics barely matter when investing in domestic backbone infrastructure
“We invest in backbone infrastructure, largely, and even our private equity businesses are backbone infrastructure type businesses. Therefore, what's important for us is to go to good countries with good people that you can operate with the standards we operate…”
Opinion
Bruce Flatt: Most listed companies do not need capital access
“Most businesses that are listed don't need access to capital. They're only listed because they're large and they happen to be just, they need owners and therefore they're in the public markets. They're never issuing equity and therefore the Price of the securi…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Flatt: AI and Robotics Will Enable Manufacturing Reshoring to the US
“If you can shrink the labor component many of those plants can come back to where the demand is specifically I'd say the United States.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Flatt: China will thrive independently as a consumer service economy
“I think China, it's a, it's an economy in itself today. It's 1.5 billion people. They're getting richer every day. They're turning into a consumer service society. There's not that much of manufacturing that's relevant to them. I think they will do extremely w…”
Assertion Supported
Flatt: Credit Spreads Are the Lowest in History
“Today, Base rates are high. We're back to five. Guess what? Spreads are the lowest they've ever been in history. We just did a thirty-year Brookfield Corporation financing, so we're borrowing money for 30 years, fixed for that time period, and it's a 125 over.”
Insight
Flatt: Passive investing creates wide price-to-value disparities for non-index companies
“For some companies, smaller, mid-size, don't fit indexes, they will be lost within public markets investing. Because active, ah, investors may not be investing in those sectors anymore, and if you don't fit the indexes, you have no buyers. Increasingly, though…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Flatt: AI's Real Money Is in Applying It to Business Processes
“Ah, but really what the, where the money is going to be made is the application of artificial intelligence into business. And simply stated that's taking processes in service and industrial businesses And making them more efficient by using advanced robotics w…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Flatt: AI Infrastructure Capital Inflows Are Historically Unprecedented
“But from an infrastructure standpoint, the amount of money being put behind this, ah, is, ah, in amounts which have almost never been seen invested before.”
Disclosure
Flatt: Brookfield produces just under half of global car starter batteries
“Look, our we make just under half of the car batteries.”
Assertion Supported
Flatt: Solar and wind are the lowest-cost power sources globally
“Solar and wind, which is where we're Which is what's filling the gap are the lowest cost energy sources for power in the world in most countries today.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Flatt: Batteries and nuclear power will eventually replace gas base load
“Eventually batteries and nuclear Will be the base load, and it won't be natural gas, but it's being shipped elsewhere in the world, and where it's going to is needed for base load, because they need that, that base load power, or it's replacing coal, which is …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Flatt: Most available data center sites are pre-contracted for 20 years
“Most sites today that are available to be built are already contracted to somebody for the next 20 years.”
Insight
Flatt: Commodity Real Estate Underperforms While Top Quartile Thrives
“If you own almost today commodity anything, it's bad. If you own commodity office, bad. If you own commodity retail, bad. You own commodity industrial, bad. In fact, if you own commodity hotels, bad. If you, what's great today is all of those things in the top…”
Prediction Held up
Flatt: Short-Term Interest Rates Will Fall Another 50 to 100 Basis Points
“I'm sure we're going to see another few hundred, a few, another 50, a hundred base points off of the short rates, and we're going to settle into just a regular range of rates.”
Insight
Flatt: Great long-term investors preserve capital and deploy during market recoveries
“Coming out of recessions or cycles, coming out of the bottom, what's most important is just have everything you have intact. Do not lose anything, do not lose too much, and keep going, because there'll be many people who will have lost stuff. What's even bette…”
Disclosure
Flatt: Brookfield is building $13B in power plants for Microsoft
“We're building from Microsoft thirteen billion dollars of power plants.”
Disclosure
Flatt: Brookfield is building a $32B fabrication plant with Intel
“We're building with Intel a thirty two billion dollar fabrication plant in Arizona.”
Assertion Supported
Flatt: Brookfield's parent company achieved 19% annualized returns over 30 years
“The point is, we've earned, our parent companies earn 19% return, annualized returns for 30 years.”
Bruce Flatt