Centerbridge Sees Consumer Pain as Inflation Lingers

Overview

Stubbornly high prices are a threat to consumers that could bleed through to credit markets, according to Centerbridge. “The rising cost of goods and interest rates will have an impact,” said Aaron Fink, the firm’s head of asset finance. “To the extent we see deterioration in jobs, and in the labor market more broadly, that’ll be problematic,” he tells Bloomberg News’ James Crombie and Carmen Arroyo, and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Himanshu Bakshi, in the latest Credit Edge podcast. Despite this, Centerbridge still sees significant opportunity in consumer finance. Fink and Bakshi also discuss how a new US administration will affect private credit via trade policy and regulation, growth in fundraising from private wealth and retail, as well as investment in data centers to support artificial intelligence.