Ken Griffin: America's $40 Trillion Debt Problem Needs Europe to Go Back to Work

America just ran a $2 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year 2026, and more than half of it went to interest payments on a $40 trillion national debt. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin says the fix won't come from Washington alone—and he's pointing a finger at European allies who, in his words, "don't want to go to work."

Speaking at the Citadel Securities Future of Global Markets event in New York, Griffin was blunt about the U.S. fiscal position: "our fiscal house is clearly not in order." Asked where he would start, he answered: "we really need to play the productivity card as hard as we can." And then, ranking his priorities: "In order of what priorities need to be, grow the damn economy."

What does Griffin want from Europe?

The hedge fund billionaire argues that American allies have to grow their own economies for the U.S. fiscal math to improve. "You actually want the Europeans to grow their economy," Griffin said. His sharpest comments targeted France's labor rules and the transatlantic trade fight.

"The tariff war with Europe's a fiasco because at this moment we should use all of our political capital. Europe. You want us to pay for your defense? Guess what? You're going to go back to work," Griffin said.

He doubled down on France specifically: "In France, there are strict limitations on how many hours you can work a week, strict limitations. It's ridiculous. Like the French want the Americans to provide the defense for Europe, and they don't want to go to work. This just doesn't work for the American people."

The numbers behind his complaint: French labor law caps the working week at 48 hours, or 44 hours on average over 12 consecutive weeks. French workers are also legally entitled to a break of at least 20 minutes for every six hours worked. Add to that the famous "les grandes vacances"—a cultural, though not legal, tradition of taking a month of one's five weeks of annual leave in July or August to escape the cities. Service and essential workers often keep working through it.

Does working more hours actually grow an economy?

Here Griffin's argument runs into the data. A working-hours study by Charlie Giattino, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Max Roser for Our World in Data found that in 2023, Norway posted GDP per capita of nearly $99,000 on just 1,412 annual hours worked per employee. The U.S. managed a little under $73,000 in GDP per capita while averaging 1,789 hours per worker—roughly 375 more hours a year, or about seven extra hours every week, for a smaller output per person.

The defense-spending backdrop is real, though. The U.S. spends approximately 3.1% to 3.4% of its GDP on defense, and the Pentagon received more than $1 trillion in funding earlier this year—the largest defense appropriation in U.S. history. France's military budget, per Politico, will rise to €63.4 billion ($71 billion) by 2027 and typically runs around 2% of GDP. President Trump has pushed this imbalance forcefully since returning to the White House.

What does this change for the growth agenda at home?

Griffin's domestic prescription is a technology-first growth strategy. "We need to make sure that data centers are built in America. But we need more oars in the water, we need more focus on nuclear fusion … we need more focus on robotics. We need more focus on the technologies that will unleash productivity for the next 20 years. Like that should be the singular focus of our administration from an economic policy perspective," he said.

He framed the challenge as shared across the West: "Grow our economy and push our allies to engage in meaningful reforms that grow their economies. The entire Western world is in the same boat together … We're not going to get out of these waters by torturing each other. We're going to get out of these waters by making the pie bigger for all of us."

Two other levers made his list: education and immigration. On talent, Griffin was expansive: "Every single brilliant person around the world. I want them to live in America."

With interest payments already consuming more than half of a $2 trillion annual deficit, the debate Griffin joined isn't going away—and his answer, growth over austerity at home plus reform pressure abroad, sets up a direct clash with economists who want spending cuts instead.