Craig Barritt/Getty Images
- Billionaire hedge-fund founder Lee Ainslie said that he believes his generation will be considered the "generation of greed" by young people.
- The founder of Maverick Capital, speaking at an Economic Club of NY Event in Midtown Manhattan, said the impact his age group has had on national debt and the environment is undeniable.
- While he said he is OK with paying higher taxes, he told the audience that he is not sure the government is the best method for redistributing wealth.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Add billionaire hedge-fund founder Lee Ainslie to the growing chorus of people in the 1% who believe the country's current path is unsustainable.
He told attendees of an Economic Club of NY event in Manhattan on Monday night that he thinks his generation - he was born in 1964, right at the end of the Baby Boomers cohort - will be remembered as the "generation of greed," especially compared to the prior generation, nicknamed the "Greatest Generation" for fighting in World War II.
Ainslie, a protege of Julian Robertson and founder of Maverick Capital, pointed to the rising national debt load and the impact his generation has had on the environment as examples that younger generations will remember about Boomers.
"I'm not sure the world of the finance can solve this," he said, talking about the social strife caused by income inequality.
He mentioned that he doesn't mind paying higher taxes, but questioned if the government is the right agency to redistribute wealth in the country - but said he's "not sure there is another way."
Billionaires like Warren Buffett, Ray Dalio, and Bill Gates have all called for higher taxes on the richest in society, citing the social strife caused by income inequality.
He declined to name a political candidate he was supporting in the presidential election but said that he was told by a prominent macro manager that if Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee, the markets would react positively - because this macro manager believes neither of them would be able to beat Trump.
In 2016, Ainslie gave more than $66,000 to a Hillary Clinton super PAC, but previously gave money to Jeb Bush when he was still in the running for the Republican nomination. He also donated to both the Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Ainslie's home state of Virginia, and Richard Burr, a Republican senator from North Carolina.
He identified a Mike Bloomberg presidency as one that might rattle the markets since he would try to address the national debt load instead of adding to it - something Ainslie thinks is necessary but would be painful in the short-term.
"I'm amazed it's just kind of fallen away from the political discourse," he said about the national debt.
"It's clearly unsustainable."