Ken Langone: 'Leaving Interest Rates At Effectively At Zero Is Messing With Nature'

There are many in the investment community who believe that by bringing rates closer to zero and then raising them afterwards Fed creates a situation which manifests itself in the form of an economic disaster. Among them is billionaire investor and co-founder Home Depot Inc HD, Kenneth "Ken" Langone.

Langone was on this Wall Street Week this Sunday to discuss the interest rate cycle.

Messing With Nature

Langone was asked where he sees the interest rates heading. He replied, "I think, they are going to go up and I hope they go up."
On when he think the Fed is going to raise rates, Langone said, "Look, the thing that bothers me, when you mess with nature. When China said 'one child only', they messed with nature and they are going to reverse that now. Leaving interest rates at effectively at zero is messing with nature."

"People that take risks, that have money should get rewarded for the risks they take. When you go to Germany and they say, 'Well, we are going to charge you 1 percent for every $1,000 you give us', that's not natural. We have got to get rates back to a point where risk is proper."

People Who Owned Things Did Very Well

He continued, "Whoever said that the income gap is getting wider is telling the truth and why is it getting wider? Anybody who owned anything in the last 7 years [that] owned things, did very well."

An Unnatural Situation

Langone reiterated his view on interest rates saying, ""We have got an unnatural situation on our hands that's not sustainable" and asked, "How about the poor people that are living in [under $10] an income?"