Jim Coulter: ‘Stuff happens in October, so strap in’

Now that the month of October is here, are the financial markets going to experience another traumatic event?

Jim Coulter, executive chairman and founding partner of TPG, had a bit of an ominous prediction during an interview with CNBC at the Delivering Alpha conference this week.

“Stuff happens in October, and we’ve got government activity, we’ve got potential defaults, so strap in, strap in,” Coulter said. “It’s going to be an interesting time, with more opportunities and risks.”

Some notable events that have taken place in October are: the stock market massacres of Black Tuesday in 1929 and Black Monday in 1987. And of course, there was the global financial crisis of 2008, which technically started in September but bled into October.

Coulter reiterated his penchant to call recessions before they happen, self-proclaiming that he “has called seven of the last five recessions.”

“Maybe I’m calling too early, but it feels to me like we’re moving into an era where you can’t count on that beta, and you’ve got to deliver [alpha] and where do you [get] Alpha? You’re going to find Alpha in disruption and change, and major waves in the economy.”

Coulter is not all doom and gloom however, as he noted that one of the biggest revolutions ever is imminent.

He added that whether investors choose bio-tech, re-shoring (returning the production and manufacturing of goods back to the states), reducing carbon footprints, etc., the “biggest industrial revolution mankind has ever seen,” is underway.

“And that revolution is the decarbonization of the economy,” he said. “We are just on the early moments of that era and to me that is interesting and why I am searching for alpha there.”

TPG announced a first close on its debut climate change fund – TPG Rise Climate Fund on $5.4 billion in July.