Morgan Stanley chief rips Soros for crisis warning

Just two days after George Soros said a financial crisis is brewing and the European Union is facing an imminent existential economic threat, Morgan Stanley’s CEO James Gorman said that the legendary investor’s opinion is “ridiculous.”

Billionaire investor George Soros warned on Tuesday that Europe is in “existential danger,” and cited President Trump’s actions as part of a recipe that could lead to the next major financial crisis.

His comments helped roil European markets, already stressed from Italy’s political turmoil and fears of contagion across the eurozone.

But Australian-born Gorman didn’t see the latest developments in Europe as anything new.

“Honestly, I think that’s ridiculous,” Gorman said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Beijing when asked about Soros’ warning. “I don’t think we’re facing an existential threat at all,” Gorman said.

“This is something which has been playing out over 10 or 15 years… There is essentially, in many countries around the world, a sense that the average performance of the economy is much better than the individual performance of the citizens in that country — and that’s what’s given rise to the wave of populism,” Gorman said.

“This has been a long, evolving political trend that we’re facing.”