Hedge Fund Titan Who Went Viral for Ranting That ‘Hell is Coming’ Has a New Prediction: ‘Massive’ Economic Boom By Fall

Bill Ackman told CNBC on Monday that he believed a “massive” economic boom was coming in the autumn months ahead — despite this week’s opening-day plummet of 900 points for stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Ackman said he expected economic activity to accelerate as renewed interest in consumerism outpaces concern over the delta variant of Covid-19. “I don’t think it’s going to change behavior to a great extent,” Ackman said of the virus. “I think people are done — I am — with being in a cave, hiding from the rest of the world. They’re going to go out, they’re going to have fun, they’re going to go to restaurants. You are going to see a massive, my view, economic boom.

“We are going to have an extremely strong economy coming in the fall,” he added. “I think people are going to return to work in September. I think companies are going to insist on vaccines, and I think it’s a good thing.”

Ackman made headlines in March 2020 for telling CNBC “hell was coming” ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. He made more than $2 billion shorting the market that month — and garnered controversy from critics who accused him of profiting from the crash after he encouraged it.

He also said Monday he believed inflated prices across the market would not be as short-lived as political officials have promised, calling it “the new normal” and suggesting inflation was actually understated.

“There’s housing inflation,” Ackman said. “There’s real wage inflation. One of the big issues — and I think this is not a transitory thing at all, trying to get people to come work in a hotel, work in a restaurant. I think it’s harder now because of some of the stimulus. I think it will be a little bit easier come September, but a lot of people have made, sort of, life choices and various things. I think you’re going to have to pay people to come to work, and I think that’s probably a long-term positive for the economy.”

With respect to financial advice, he added: “I would borrow as much as you can at a long-term fixed rate on the basis of today’s rates. … I would say, come the turn of the year, I think we are going to have meaningfully higher yields as people realize the economy is going to make a big recovery.”

Watch above via CNBC.