Bill Ackman has grown Pershing Square Capital Management to more than $16 billion from $54 million since he founded the fund nearly two decades ago. The 57-year-old activist investor speaks with On The Money about his return to office policy, his possible presidential picks and why hes still bullish on New York City.
Lydia: You are among the big names on Wall Street who didn’t move to Florida. Why?
Bill: The short answer is that I love New York City. My desire to be successful is founded on a desire to be independent. It always seemed crazy to me to sacrifice that independence to save money on taxes. If you make $100 million some people in finance make even more than that you can save $25 million of that by living somewhere cheaper.
Some people choose to manage their lives that way. I do think it’s incumbent upon New York City to make this a desirable place to live and we have to make it an attractive place to do business. If one super wealthy person leaves the city thats really bad for the revenue. I dont think it’s smart to push taxes higher I think that would actually generate less revenue.
Lydia: There have been some top players in finance like Ken Griffin who have made a show of moving to Miami and talking about how smart it is for their business. But do you think that trend will be reversed? Will we see a lot of headlines in the next year about people moving back?
Bill: I think it’s a great thing that [Citadel founder] Ken Griffin is building a major campus, if you will, in New York City on Park Avenue. I think thats an amazing thing for NYC whether it’s his primary office or not, and it speaks to the fact that a lot of the youngest, most talented people want to be here. My nephew graduated from Harvard and many of his classmates moved here even before they had a job. The city is still a big draw for young people and if this is where the talented, young people want to be, then the companies will have to have a major presence here.
Lydia: Given the younger generation wants flexibility, is it realistic to expect people to return to the office five days a week? On the flip side, can New York City flourish if you dont have people back in Midtown and back in office buildings?
Bill: Everyone wants more flexible work whether its a school play, a sports game you dont want to miss and we have technology that lets you do that. What weve done at Pershing Square is bring people back five days a week 10 months a year. Of course if theres something you need to do like a doctors appointment or working from home one day, use your best judgment. And then we give people July and August to work from anywhere with the caveat that if there’s something where we need to bring everyone together, you show up. Weve experimented with that for two years and thats worked well, people like the balance, and it works for our business.
Lydia: And you believe New York will still be a place where businesses want to operate?
Bill: I think if NYC became an unsafe place the images you see of San Francisco where you have open air drug users lying on the street that would be very damaging and could be a tipping point for people leaving the city.
You have to manage the city and its population effectively. In San Francisco you have homeless people acting in a threatening and hostile way thats led to the emptying out and death spiral of San Francisco. Again you want to manage a city so that it is pro-business and pro-resident and you want to show care for people who are less fortunate, but that doesnt mean they can defecate on the street and threaten parents or kids.
Lydia: Is NYC poised to go into that kind of death spiral?
Bill: No, I dont think so. We have a mayor who has for obvious reasons respect for the police force and I think they respect him. I think thats really important. The whole defunding the police movement was not a good one. Bail reform went too far. If you believe the statistic, it’s several hundred people committing the vast majority of street crime and those people should be locked up.
Lydia: The new movie Dumb Money and the meme stock craze clearly a cautionary tale of a short bet gone wrong. What do you make of that film?
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Bill: We are among the most famous short sellers but thats because we shorted two stocks in the last twenty years. One short theres a movie about Herbalife [Betting on Zero] and the other short theres a book about MBIA [Confidence Game]. But we dont short stocks for precisely the reason you say. We gave up that business a long time ago because its too risky. Even when youre right you can lose a lot of money. Of course, short sellers can do amazing research.
Lydia: Youve publicly applauded the work Hindenburg has done on Carl Icahns firm. How are you thinking about Icahn now? Do you think the report captured whats going on at his firm?
Bill: What Hindenburg said has been proven out.
Lydia: Youve expressed support for a lot of different 2024 presidential candidates. Anyone else you plan to support?
Bill: Id love Jamie Dimon to be president but hes made it clear hes not going to run. Id love for a candidate of his quality to run. I think Biden-Trump part II is not the best option for America. It would be great for us to be brought together by a more centrist candidate that members of both parties can vote for.
Lydia: What about Vivek or RFK Jr. youve tweeted support for?
Bill: Id like to see multiple alternatives. Ive been supportive of Vivek because I know him and hes super smart and capable. I wish he was a more centrist candidate. Ive not yet met RFK but hopefully will have an opportunity to do so. But I still havent found my ideal candidate. Biden should step aside and that would create a flurry of alternative candidates. People are afraid to run against the president and I think theres some possibility of that happening.
DUBLIN — Rocco Becht passed for two touchdowns and ran for another score, helping No. 22 Iowa State beat No. 17 Kansas State24-21 in the Aer Lingus Classic on Saturday.
Becht was 14-for-28 for 183 yards. He found Dominic Overby for a 23-yard TD in the first quarter and passed to Brett Eskildsen for a 24-yard score in the third quarter.
With 2:26 to go, Iowa State went for it on fourth-and-3 at the Kansas State 16-yard line. Becht found Carson Hansen for 15 yards and iced the game.
“He called a great play, he gave me two plays and let me decide and I knew we were going to have a chance to get it,” Becht said “We’ve worked on it in practice and it’s been working for us and we’re confident with it and I have trust in my guys.”
The Cyclones (1-0, 1-0 Big 12) opened a 24-14 lead in the fourth quarter after a turnover on downs by Kansas State at its own 30-yard line. Becht finished the short drive with a 7-yard touchdown run with 6:38 left.
Avery Johnson passed for 273 yards and two touchdowns for Kansas State (0-1, 0-1). He also had a 10-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
“I mean that’s the thing, regardless of the outcome we have 11 games to play,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “We have our back against the wall, but now we’ve got to reset and regroup and get ready to play.”
Johnson threw a 65-yard touchdown pass to Jerand Bradley with 6:23 remaining, but the Wildcats never got the ball back.
Both teams struggled to deal with wet conditions in the first half. Kansas State had two turnovers and a turnover on downs, and Iowa State committed two turnovers in the first 30 minutes.
“We just made some great adjustments,” Campbell said. “We saw some things different in the first game and the opportunity to make some adjustments and to have the ability to do that, to have the staff that’s been together for so long that we have the confidence to make those adjustments.”
The Cyclones grabbed a 14-7 lead when Becht found Eskildsen in the corner of the end zone with 1:07 left in the third quarter.
Johnson responded with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jayce Brown, tying it at 14 with 14:09 remaining in the game.
Hansen led Iowa State with 71 yards rushing on 16 carries. Joe Jackson had 51 yards on 12 carries for Kansas State.
“I thought that the (offensive line) did a really great job in the second half,” Campbell said. “Our tight ends and o-line did a great job of execution and man Carson is a really great player so we’re really proud of him.”
Iowa State has beat Kansas State in five of the past six seasons.
“I think those are great wins, any time you can beat quality opponents that’s awesome,” Campbell said. “We got a long way to go, it’s only game one and there’s a lot of football left and we’re going to have to see if we’re tough enough as a program and team to go home and get ready for a good South Dakota team next week.”
Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards was injured in the first quarter on a punt that he muffed. He didn’t return to the game.
The Mets said Montas had a right elbow UCL injury. The move was made retroactive to Friday.
Montas is 3-2 with a 6.28 ERA in nine games, including seven starts.
Right-hander Huascar Brazobán was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. Brazobán is 5-2 with a 3.83 ERA in 44 games, including three starts, with the Mets this season. His three starts came as an opener.
PITTSBURGH — Bubba Chandler wanted to drink in a moment a lifetime in the making.
The combination of adrenaline, the remnants of his traditional pregame Red Bull coursing through his system and the buzz inside PNC Park as the 22-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander made his major league debut in the top of the sixth Friday night against Colorado wouldn’t let him.
“I blacked out in the first inning,” Chandler said. “But I just kind of heard the place go crazy.”
With any luck, not for the last time.
Flashing (and sometimes fighting) the electric stuff that made him the top pitching prospect in baseball, Chandler made history while offering a hint of what might come during Pittsburgh’s 9-0 victory over the Rockies.
Anchored by a fastball that reached triple digits with ease and helped by some solid defense behind him, Chandler became the first pitcher to throw four scoreless innings and record a save in his debut since saves became an officially recognized statistic in 1969.
“Kind of everything I dreamed of,” Chandler said after allowing two hits and striking out three while needing 40 pitches to record 12 outs.
Even if running out of the bullpen in late August for a team likely on its way to a last-place finish isn’t exactly what Chandler envisioned his first moment in the big leagues might look like.
If he’s being honest, Chandler thought he would be up sooner, particularly after a spectacular first two months at Triple-A Indianapolis in which he was at times unhittable.
“I was mad, yeah,” Chandler said.
That anger, however, morphed into something else entirely by the time Chandler delivered his first big league pitch, a 99 mph fastball that Colorado’s Orlando Arcia fouled off over the backstop: gratitude.
“You can complain all you want, everything,” Chandler said. “In the end, I’m here in the big leagues. There’s not a lot of 22-year-old kids that get to do this.”
No, there’s not. And even fewer who can do it the way Chandler does it, by attacking the strike zone with what teammate Braxton Ashcraft — who set the table for Chandler by throwing five innings of one-hit ball — called “one of the best arms I’ve ever seen.”
Chandler wasn’t perfect. But he was close.
Arcia took Chandler’s third pitch in the majors and slammed it off the left-field wall for a double. It was the lone major mistake Chandler made.
He fanned Ryan Ritter on a 100 mph fastball that painted the outside corner, induced Tyler Freeman to ground out to second and then struck out Mickey Moniak swinging on another triple-digit fastball.
Chandler needed just seven pitches to retire the Rockies in order in the seventh, helped by a sliding catch by center fielder Jack Suwinski.
Colorado’s Braxton Fulford led off the eighth by getting hit by a pitch but Chandler induced Yanquiel Fernandez to hit into a double play and exacted a bit of revenge by getting Arcia to flail at a 1-2 changeup that dipped down and out of the zone, the only time during his appearance that Chandler made it a point to admire his work.
“I was like, ‘Dang, that felt good coming out of the hand, that was a great pitch,'” Chandler said with a laugh.
Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly sent Chandler back out for the ninth. He worked around a single by Ritter by getting three straight fly outs to end it. Chandler started walking toward the dugout when Suwinski tracked down Warming Bernabel‘s liner to give the Pirates their third victory in four games.
It was only then that Chandler — who had started in 83 of his 89 minor league appearances — remembered that the game was over. It was time to stay on the field for the handshake line that only comes after you close out a win.
In between the hugs, a figurative weight lifted off the slender shoulders that sit atop his 6-foot-3 frame.
“There’s a lot of times during the offseason or during the season it’s like, ‘This sucks. Where’s the light at the end of the tunnel type of thing?'” he said. “I found it.”
The Pirates plan to use Chandler in a relief role for now as a way of creating what Kelly called an “on ramp” to the majors, a strategy the club used earlier this season after calling up Ashcraft.
Chandler will have an opportunity to start at some point, though the club is keeping a careful eye on his workload. His historic night pushed his season total to 104 innings, not that far away from the 119⅔ innings he pitched a year ago.
The reality is that whatever happens over the next five weeks will help set the table for 2026, when Pittsburgh’s rotation could include Chandler, Ashcraft, reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller, among others.
The future could be exciting if the Pirates can find a way to fix the worst offense in the majors. All that matters to Chandler is that the future is finally here.
“The past 22 years, it’s just been ‘I want to be on a major league field,’ and whether it was hitting or pitching, just wanted to be in the game and show what God gave me,” he said. “And I believe I did that.”
