Citadel CEO Ken Griffin bashes Bidenomics: ‘The American public knows things aren’t working’

But Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund and financial services giant Citadel, isn’t buying the Bidenomics campaign strategy. “I mean, whoever told him to run on Bidenomics has no idea how to read an economics textbook,” the Wall Street titan told Bloomberg at the Global Macro Conference in Miami Tuesday.

Griffin, who gave a total of $60 million to Republican campaigns in the 2022 election cycle, including to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ successful reelection campaign, noted that consumer prices have increased almost 20% since Biden took office, but real wage growth has been stagnant. At the same time, the national deficit has increased to $1.7 trillion this year, while the national debt now sits at a record $33.7 trillion. “The American public knows things aren’t working in this economy for them,” he said.

But while many average Americans have struggled under the Biden presidency, Griffin’s own wealth has soared. In 2020, when Biden was elected, Griffin was worth $15.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Today, he’s worth $36 billion.

Investing in the future? Or spending recklessly?

Griffin’s Bidenomics critique hits at the heart of the debate between many economists and average Americans over the health of the economy. The economists note that, according to most figures, the economy is doing pretty well. Despite the challenging headwinds of the pandemic as well as multiple wars in the Middle East and Europe, GDP continues to grow, inflation is fading, and real wage growth has returned in recent months. 

But the average American disagrees—bigtime. Years of spiraling prices, rising interest rates, deteriorating housing…