Marks says 700 direct lending managers emerged to manage $1.7 trillion in a favorable environment with declining interest rates.
“I'm told that there are roughly 700 direct lending managers. So the the the And the availability of that $1,700,000,000,000 put a lot of people into business and made a lot of people extremely successful along with a very favorable economy and with low or generally low or generally declining interest rates, which are salutary.”
“You know, the the the non Shiller PE ratio is about 23 or so today. The eighty year average is 16. So we're roughly 50% higher today. But in 2000, I think it was 32.”
Marks notes only 3% of 700 direct lending managers existed before the financial crisis, questioning their ability to handle adversity.
“I'm told that of the 700, roughly 3% were in business before the global financial crisis. So we don't know how many of them are have what it takes to deal with a harsh environment.”