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Citadel CEO Ken Griffin sounded off on the impact of the Biden administration’s regulatory policies on the U.S. economy, saying that the Trump administration’s move to end the “regulatory onslaught” has been a relief to entrepreneurs wanting to grow their businesses.
The billionaire co-founder of Citadel spoke at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday and said the Biden administration’s heavy-handed approach to regulation created constant friction for businesses like his firm.
“You cannot imagine how painful it was each and every day under the Biden administration to look at what new crazy proposal was being put into place to solve a problem that didn’t even exist,” he said.
“Our constant friction at Citadel, with the government across umpteen different aspects of our business, was exhausting, and to have that literally end on one day – Election Day – just gives you so much energy as an entrepreneur to go back and build your damn business,” Griffin said.
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Griffin added that, “The biggest sea change I’ve seen, across American executives, has been just the giant sigh of relief – ‘I can now go and focus on building my business.'”
He went on to cite an example of how the Biden administration’s policies impacted businesses, noting that the Justice Department’s move to file an antitrust suit to block the proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines by JetBlue Airways had a direct impact on his firm.
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The DOJ argued that blocking JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit violated antitrust law and would’ve hurt consumers by leaving them with fewer choices among budget air carriers and higher air fares.
“We happened to be a creditor of Spirit. Their merger with JetBlue was stopped. Spirit’s in bankruptcy today,” Griffin said.
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“There were so many decisions that were so poorly thought out in terms of economic consequences; it cost the U.S. economy dearly, I cannot emphasize that enough,” he added.
Griffin said that while the Trump administration’s rollback of regulations from the Biden era has progressed slowly so far, the lighter-touch approach to regulatory enforcement has been a boost for U.S. businesses and entrepreneurs since the president returned to the White House a year ago.
“The Trump administration is making slow progress on deregulation thus far, but the end of the regulatory onslaught just has been an extraordinary boom for American business,” Griffin said.
