Despite the less than robust recovery, volatile market, looming “fiscal cliff” and seemingly inevitable higher taxes, the US economy and stock market got a resounding endorsement from finance legends Charles Schwab and George Roberts yesterday at Charles Schwab & Co’s annual IMPACT conference in Chicago.

Speaking at the conference’s afternoon general session in a question and answer format with CNBC television anchor Maria Bartiromo, Schwab, founder and chairman of his eponymous company, said he expected a “new round of wealth creation” in the US accompanied by “massive” investing opportunities. Fears of a prolonged economic slump in the US were overblown, he contended.

Roberts, co-founder, co-chair and co-chief executive of KKR & Co, was equally enthusiastic. Investment opportunities in the US have “never been as good” as they are now, he asserted, citing the country’s oil and gas boom and an increase in manufacturing, chemical and fertilizer production as examples of the US’s economic resurgence.

Living with higher taxes

Both men, now in their mid-70s, seemed unfazed by likely tax hikes on capital gains. Schwab said he was old enough to have lived through periods of high and low taxes and said investors with winning stocks made money in both environments. “Life will go on,” he said.

Roberts was also unperturbed. “Everybody will adjust their behavior,” he said. The politically conservative Schwab even praised the Dodd-Frank Act as helping to boost the economy by providing a “sense of stability.”

Discussing other investment opportunities, Schwab said he is putting 10 per cent to 20 per cent of his portfolio in alternative investments and said he was particularly bullish on the “private credit area.”