Bill Ackman on the damage done by Trump's trade war

Unless it is clear that a company can continue to source from China on economically viable terms, it must leave the country.  There is not a board of directors or management team who will ever again feel comfortable relying on China for a major portion of their supply chain.  The damage has been done.

~ Bill Ackman

Bill Ackman on the need to guarantee uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley Bank

 I woke up Saturday morning after the events of the week pretty convinced that if the government didn't, at a minimum, guarantee deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, we'd have a massive run on pretty much every regional bank on Monday.  And my advice was "we need to guarantee all deposits, not just those."  Unfortunately, I think the run is continuing.  If you look at the deposit inflows at the big banks, if you talk to anyone at JPMorgan who works at opening accounts, they're working literally around the clock to take in all the capital that's flowing in.  That's not good for our banking system and our country and that's what I was afraid of over the weekend, which is why I was so public, if you will.

~ Bill Ackman, interview with Harry Stebbings, 20VC, 27:00 mark, March 20, 2023

Bill Ackman on the Covid crisis and resiliency of publicly-traded companies

If you own super-resilient businesses, they’re going to do better than they would have had there been no crisis.  The stock market represents the strength of the best and most dominant, best-capitalized companies, and the stock market that doesn’t exist is a market of private, family-owned mom-and-pop stores, and that’s the decimated part of America right now.

~ Bill Ackman, "Inside the Greatest Trade of All Time—and What Bill Ackman Is Investing in Now," Barron's, September 21, 2020

Bill Ackman on the price drop in Valeant Pharmaceuticals

At this price, it's a gift to investors.

~ Bill Ackman, as appeared on CNBC, July 31, 2014

(Valeant stock was trading at about $120, down from previous close of $125.83.  VRX was selling off after release of Q2 earnings.)

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System executive director on Pershing Square's 25% return in the first half

When you are with the best of the best, there is no being excited about these numbers.  It just confirms what you already knew. Brilliant people will make you money over time.

~ George Hopkins, executive director at Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, an investor in Pershing Square, "Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square surges 25% in first half," Reuters, July 3, 2014

Bill Ackman on ratings agencies as underwriters of the financial crisis

I actually think it would be a good thing for rating agencies if they suffered some consequences for bad opinions.

One of the problems is, when you have an institution who is allowed to write opinions that have enormous market impact, but they have no economic – they have an exemption for free speech, it can create some problems. Rating agencies, in my view, during the credit crisis acted effectively as underwriters. Deals could not get done without their imprimatur.

~Bill Ackman, CEO, Pershing Square Capital, Bloomberg News, May 13th, 2010

Bill Ackman on the role of shorts in preventing bubbles

What caused the housing industry to become one of the great bubbles of all time? The answer is that there really was no way to short the housing industry until really in the last several years when development of synthetic CDOs and other structures allowed people like Paulson to make big bets against housing. Had there been a mechanism to short housing earlier, there probably wouldn't have been a bubble. If you didn't have shorts, if you couldn't short stocks, the probability of stock market bubbles would be much greater.

~William Ackman, managing partner, Pershing Square Capital Management, CNBC's Squawk Box, April 27th, 2010

Bill Ackman on the cause of the credit crisis

What caused the credit crisis was that more and more risk was hidden away in the system by companies that didn't have the wherewithal to meet their obligations. I remember people asking the question, "Where was all the risk going?" was the question people were asking, you know, five years ago. And the answer is that the risk was going to companies like MBIA and Ambac and the risk was going into CDOs, and the risk was going into companies like AIG Financial Products. There was a lot of 'pass the hot potato' and very little attention paid to it by regulators.

~William Ackman, managing partner, Pershing Square Capital Management, CNBC's Squawk Box, April 27th, 2010