Citadel’s Griffin Calls Rush to Gold as Safer Asset ‘Concerning’

Citadel’s Ken Griffin said investors are starting to view gold as a safer asset than the dollar, a development that’s “really concerning” to the billionaire investor.  “We’re seeing substantial asset inflation away from the dollar as people are looking for ways to effectively de-dollarize, or de-risk their portfolios vis-a-vis US sovereign risk,” Griffin said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua on Monday. The lingering federal government shutdown and the prospect of potential rate cuts helped propel the precious metal on Monday to a record. This year, investors have been betting more on gold, silver and Bitcoin, in what’s been called the “debasement trade.” The US is seeing fiscal and monetary stimulus that’s more akin to what normally happens during a recession, which is stoking markets, Griffin said. 
“We’re definitely on a bit of a sugar high in the US economy right now,” Griffin said.

“We’re definitely on a bit of a sugar high in the US economy right now,” Griffin said.
Griffin was speaking at a Citadel Securities conference for institutional clients in downtown Manhattan. The market-making firm he founded in 2002 matches buyers and sellers in equities and fixed income. It serves asset managers, banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, government agencies and public pension programs.
In the wide-ranging interview Monday, Griffin also said the $100,000 cost to keep employees on an H-1B visa won’t be a major problem for his company.
“Fortunately, we’re in a sector of the economy where a $100,000 one-time cost to hire a person is not going to be make it or break it,” Griffin said. “I worry far more about the brilliant student in India who doesn’t come to America, or the gifted student in mathematics and physics that chooses to stay in China.”

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