Citadel’s Ken Griffin sees high inflation lasting for decades

Billionaire Ken Griffin, head of the Miami-based hedge-fund manager Citadel, said higher baseline inflation may go on for decades, caused by structural changes that are pushing the world toward de-globalization.

Speaking at a Bloomberg forum in Singapore on Thursday, Griffin said this will have an impact on the cost of funding the U.S. deficit. He added that the U.S. is “spending on the government level like a drunken sailor,” and that higher interest rates are something the government hadn’t counted on “when we went on the spending spree.” The country had more than $33 trillion in national debt as of September and a fiscal deficit of almost $1.7 trillion for the fiscal year to date since October 2022.

Griffin’s comments came ahead of Thursday afternoon’s 30-year Treasury bond auction, which went badly and produced weaker-than-expected demand. Thursday’s sale was one of a trio of government auctions that have taken place since Tuesday, totaling $112 billion.