Kenneth Griffin

"I want to be perfectly clear: we had no role in Robinhood’s decision to limit trading in GameStop or any other of the 'meme' stocks."

Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on February 18, 2021, Griffin denied involvement in the January trading halt, defended payment for order flow as a “longstanding, transparent and regulated practice,” and said Citadel Securities executes roughly 40% of all retail equity volume.

Citadel earned $16 billion in 2022, the largest annual profit by any hedge fund on record.

LCH Investments estimated Citadel’s net gains after fees for investors at $16 billion, ahead of John Paulson’s roughly $15.5 billion subprime bet in 2007. The flagship Wellington fund returned 38.1% while the hedge fund industry lost about $208 billion.

"It is irresponsible for the U.S. government to incur a deficit of 6.4% when unemployment is hovering around 3.75%. We must stop borrowing at the expense of future generations."

In his 2023 year-end letter to investors, Griffin called out the fiscal deficit and the burden of government debt and entitlement spending on Western economies.

"The American public knows things aren’t working in this economy for them."

Speaking at the Bloomberg Global Macro Conference in Miami in November 2023, Griffin criticized the fiscal and inflation record of the Biden administration, citing a $1.7 trillion deficit and consumer prices up almost 20% since 2021.

"The peace dividend is clearly at the end of the road."

At the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Griffin said the US government was spending “like a drunken sailor,” that deglobalization could keep inflation elevated for decades, and that money-printing to avoid default would send the economy “into a deep tailspin.”