HOWARD MARKS: Donald Trump is bad for investors
Marks, co-founder and chairman of investing giant Oaktree Capital Group, told Bloomberg TV's Stephanie Ruhle and David Westin that Republican presidential frontrunner Trump and his competitors are preaching fear and exaggerating economic concerns.
And these are doing nothing to ease the anxiety that is already gripping markets right now.
"They're scaring the hell out of people," Marks said of Trump and his Republican competitors.
"And Donald says, the Chinese are killing us. The Mexicans are killing us. The Japanese are killing us. But we're going to get the jobs back. And I think that people tend to believe him."
Marks added that Trump's tactics have left his primary competitors with no choice but to follow his tune, despite economic evidence to the contrary.
"It's very hard for them to compete with him by saying 'No, the latest information from the Commerce Department says it's not true.' [The voters] don't want to hear that. [Trump's] stuff is much more attention [grabbing]."
As for what else is bothering investors, Marks said that a source of the stock market turmoil has been "cosmic fears" that are outside of basic economy cycle concerns.
"I think that people have gotten used to dealing with normal economic cycles, recession, recovery, et cetera," Marks said. "But we have now kind of cosmic issues that people don't have any experience dealing with and don't know how."
As for what these "cosmic fears" might entail, Marks highlighted China, oil prices, interest rates, and terrorism.