Ken Griffin: High Inflation to Last for Decades

Higher inflation may last for decades in the U.S., and the elevated interest rates that come with that will make it more expensive for the government to fund the deficit, warns Citadel founder Ken Griffin.

The U.S. government hadn’t counted on higher rates “when we went on the spending spree that created a $33 trillion deficit,” Griffin said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum Thursday in Singapore.

U.S. leaders must put a limit on the fiscal budget and stop “spending on the government level like a drunken sailor,” the billionaire said.

Even U.S. consumers, despite being buffeted by a strong job market, sense “something is not quite right,” Griffin said.

High government debts not just in the U.S. but worldwide, coupled with wars in Ukraine and Israel, are what will drive elevated inflation and de-globalization, the hedge fund manager said.

“The peace dividend is clearly at the end of the road,” Griffin said, referring to money available for purposes other than defense. “We are likely to see higher real rates, and we’re likely to see higher nominal rates.”

If the Federal Reserve should decide to deal with the deficit by spending money through monetary policy, “the economic consequences would be devastating,” said the entrepreneur and philanthropist. “The minute we start to print dollars just to deal with the possibility of default, our economy’s going into a deep tailspin.”

One of the “many trends right now that are pushing us towards de-globalization” is the loss of cheap energy in Europe because of the Russia-Ukraine war, Griffin believes.