Carlyle’s Rubenstein Sees US Deficit as Bigger Issue Than Trade

Tackling the widening US fiscal deficit is a bigger issue than tariffs, which are likely to fade from view by the time of the midterm elections in Congress next year, according to Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein.

The US has been allowed to accumulate debt because the dollar is the world’s reserve currency, Rubenstein said at an event hosted by the investment firm in Tokyo on Tuesday. “If we don’t get it under control,” he said, “at some point people will become more nervous about the dollar as a reserve currency and its stability.”

David Rubenstein

Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg

The US was ...