The way Bridgewater handles these “fact checks” is to have the writers put their questions in writing and we reply in writing so that there is a clear record of the exchange. I would be happy to show the exchange with reporters in this case to a fair judge of The Wall Street Journal’s accuracy.
The writers then proceed to write the article they want to write, which is a collection of these bits and pieces intended to paint a nasty picture of the person or company. In the article on me and Bridgewater, you will see this along with an odd collection of things that includes a photo of me at Burning Man and a photo of me and Diddy (who is a man I deeply admire and who I am honored to mentor at his request), woven together to portray me as an irresponsible person and ogre who refuses to let go of control of Bridgewater, which is causing lots of turnover at the top. Those who know me better than these writers can judge if I’m an irresponsible person. As for turnover at Bridgewater, while it is true that a number of people haven’t worked out, our three chief investment officers have been at Bridgewater for 45 years, 34 years, and 24 years, and our CEOs have each worked here for 10 years and they have fabulous relationships that include arguing a lot about what’s best and being good friends. I don’t know of any organization that has had more stable leadership at the top and at the same time has had more open disagreement to get at what is true and more idea-meritocratic decision making about what to do about it. That is what has made Bridgewater successful.
