EUROPEANS are less hardworking, less ambitious, subject to numerous regulations and less inclined to take risks than Americans, said the head of the giant Norwegian oil fund, the Financial Times reports.

Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norges Bank Investment Management, a fund worth $1.6 trillion, told the Financial Times that it is “worrying” that American companies are outperforming European competitors in innovation and technology.

“There is a problem in the mindset in terms of accepting mistakes and risk. If you fail in America, you will get another chance. In Europe, you are finished,” he said, adding that there is also a difference in the “general level of ambition.” 

“We are not exactly ambitious. I should be careful when talking about work-life balance, but Americans simply work more,” he added.

“I probably shouldn’t talk too much about it”

His views are important because the oil fund he manages is one of the largest individual investors in the world. It owns an average of 1.5 percent of every listed company globally and 2.5 percent of every European stock. 

The fund’s ownership in American stocks has increased over the past ten years or so. The fund has stakes in about 9,000 companies around the world, but seven American technology companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla – make up about 12 percent of the fund’s equity portfolio.

Asked whether people at the oil fund are worried about the outcome of this year’s U.S. presidential election, in which Donald Trump wants to unseat current president Joe Biden, Tangen replied: “Yes.”

“But I probably shouldn’t talk too much about it. We at Marica invest only in great companies. That will have no implications for how we allocate our capital. We have almost half of our assets in America,” he said.

Source: index.hr