- The CEO of Norges Bank told the FT he believed Americans worked much harder than Europeans.
- Nicolai Tangen made this remark while explaining the sovereign wealth fund’s desire to invest in the United States.
- About half of the $1.6 trillion oil fund’s shares are now invested in the United States.
Europeans are less ambitious and don’t work as hard as Americans, said Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norway’s $1.6 trillion oil fund.
“There is a mentality problem in terms of accepting mistakes and risks. If you go bankrupt in America, you have another chance. In Europe, you are dead,” Tangen told the Financial Times in a published interview Wednesday.
“We are not very ambitious,” Tangen added. “I should be careful when I talk about work-life balance, but Americans work harder.”
Tangen made the remarks as he provided an overview of his company’s efforts to invest in the United States, which now accounts for half of the shares held by Norges Bank.
Norges Bank is in charge of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which manages revenues from the country’s huge oil and gas reserves and holds some $1.6 trillion in assets.
Tangen said his office was closely monitoring the 2024 US elections and told the FT he was concerned about the possible outcomes, although he declined to say more.
“We are simply investing in America in great companies for the long term. It will have no implications for how we allocate our capital,” he said of the election, according to the FT. “We own almost half of the assets in America, we will remain invested in America.”
The CEO added that US stocks have beaten those in Europe because US companies are innovating and developing technology faster than their European counterparts, telling the FT that he considers this trend “worrying”.
About 71% of Norges Bank’s holdings are in stocks, with significant stakes in U.S. companies, including $19.2 billion in Alphabet, $17.4 billion in Amazon and $33 billion in Apple.
Norges Bank is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and the largest owner of the global stock market. The company invests in 72 countries and is estimated to own 1.5% of all global stocks.
It’s true that Americans work more hours on average than their European counterparts, according to data collected from 2019 to 2022 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The average American worker surveyed reported working 1,811 hours per year, or about 35 hours per week, compared to an average of 1,571 hours per year for workers in European Union countries. This is also compared to a total average of 1,752 hours per year documented by the OECD.
British employees reported in the same survey that they worked 1,532 hours per year, while German employees reported working the least of all OECD countries – with an average of 1,341 hours per year, or around 26 hours per week.
businessinsider
