When it comes to business and investment, the European Union (EU) thinks it can be like the U.S. It wants to be like the U.S., and it’s actively trying to be like the U.S. But it will never be like the U.S. for one simple reason: it doesn’t have the guts or the will.
The contrast between Europe’s risk-averse business culture and the American winner-take-all culture was on display last week when the president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, delivered remarks at the annual French Entrepreneurs Conference. She’s not happy that, according to her, Europeans are keeping a collective 10 trillion euros in their bank accounts and not investing that money in European startups and other companies.
"In Europe, we have no shortage of technology or savings,” von der Leyen said. “But we still lack sufficient capacity to develop European companies on a large scale. Too many projects are stalled because the initial investment is too risky, demand is too uncertain or capital is too expensive. Our companies know how to start in Europe. But they also need to be able to grow here.”
The EU president said that European startups tend to go outside of Europe for financing, and this is where she says, “They shift their center of gravity. Or they are bought out.”
I’m going to borrow a better description of von der Leyen from my colleague, Stephen Green, who calls her a “Euro-Scold,” which is so apt.
So yeah, the Euro-Scold said the EU cannot finance the entrepreneurial growth with public funds alone. She said that Europeans have savings, quite a bit, actually, and she wants to get her hands on it. But regretfully for her and for her globalist allies, it’s not that easy. It seems that you can’t just raid people's bank accounts in Europe if you want that money, at least not yet.
That doesn’t prevent her, however, from lusting after that money, coveting it, and seeing it as just lying there unused in bank accounts. The owners of those accounts may not see it that way. They may see those savings accounts as a safe haven from the likes of her and so many others whom they know could burn through 10 trillion euros pretty quickly and still have nothing to show for it.
“Europe must now to put these savings to work for their companies,” she added. “This is the objective of the Economic and Investment Union. We have put forward proposals on securitization, investment by banks and insurance companies, and the integration and supervision of our markets. Together, these measures could unlock up to 470 billion euros in additional investment.”
I’m not sure about you, but ever since the COVID pandemic, any time I hear from this Euro-Scold and the globalists on the other side of the pond, I find myself immediately trying to read between the lines and looking for the secret word sequence where she introduces the Fourth Reich or some other.
That’s not the case here. If her jargon sounds like jargon, it’s because that’s what it is. It’s neat-sounding terminology to mask the cultural impotence that is the European business climate, which can’t get its mind off of those 10 trillion euros it wants so badly.
Just in the way the EU is framing all of this, the culture is very top-down. The agenda is set by the government, not the marketplace, and that represents all the difference. In America, the entrepreneurial spirit is marked by a thriving private investment marketplace. In Europe, they like to talk about uses for the invested funds. In America, we talk about opportunity for investors to grow their money through the best possible return on investment (ROI).
These are two completely different mindsets, and the difference between the two says everything about why Europe is so terrible at fostering business and economic growth.
What the Euro-Scold and her friends understand is that they’re not set up at the moment to give Europeans incentive to invest at scale in European ventures. They’ve come to realize that they simply don’t have the kind of investment infrastructure that incentivizes individual Europeans to invest.
Americans are different. It’s in this country’s DNA to try new things, to take risks, to innovate, to invent, to sometimes fail, to get back up, and to start over – all with as little government involvement as possible.
We love our stories of companies like Apple starting in Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage. We love it when we see Elon Musk make a ton of money and then gamble it all on multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, to really blow expectations away and change the world. Americans don’t need a government to incentivize them into investing in these world-changing companies. The default impulse in America is for large swaths of potential investors to compete against each other to get in on some of that action.
Our markets are vibrant and exciting, sometimes too exciting, but still, they are nothing like the lukewarm European startup climate.
Individual Americans, through their 401(k) plans at work, are collectively invested in mostly American companies to the tune of $10 trillion. IRA accounts represent another $18 trillion. Americans invested directly in mutual funds total close to $6 trillion. All U.S. retirement assets total more than $47 trillion, and that doesn’t even touch on the sheer level of individual investing that happens on a daily basis on Wall Street.
Metaphorically speaking, while American entrepreneurialism has been rockin’ and rollin’ for well over 100 years, the EU can’t decide whether it wants one lump of sugar or two in its afternoon tea, right before it takes its afternoon nap.
And so, the Euro-Scold is seeking baby steps in trying to gently nudge Europeans to move chunks of their money from the safety of savings accounts to the risky world of startup funding. Good luck with that.
The EC published a paper called “The Strategy for the Economic and Investment Union (EUI)” in March 2025. It states: "Bank deposits are safe and easy to access, but they usually earn less money than investments in capital markets. EUI can support the well-being of our citizens by giving them the choice and opportunities to pursue better returns by putting their savings to work in capital markets.”
At the same time, more investment in capital markets supports the real economy, allowing companies across Europe to grow and prosper. This can create better jobs with more competitive wages for European workers and boost investment and growth across all economic sectors - especially in areas that the EU has identified as strategically important, such as technological innovation, decarbonisation and security.
Would you buy what they’re selling? I wouldn’t, because they're not telling me what’s in it for me. Where’s my ROI? I don’t want to hear how you plan to spend my money and how you think it will help the common good. That’s socialist talk. I want to hear how you’re going to make my money work for me. As an American, I already understand that if you prosper, good things will happen throughout society, so don't waste your breath on that.
In America, technical innovation is in our DNA. No one needs to identify it as strategically important. As for “decarbonisation,” that’s a ruse that the EU continues to perpetuate. From an investment standpoint, it’s an economic abyss.
Since the EU has more talk than game, Europeans don’t have to worry any time soon that the confiscation police will start raiding their savings accounts. The EC is not planning to force redirection of those savings account moneys to their favorite pet projects and companies. Instead, what they’d like to do is have a framework where Europeans can elect to take some of their own savings and invest it in European companies on a par with how Americans invest their own 401(k) or IRA accounts, among others. Though it must be noted that the strength of American participation in those retirement savings accounts is the related tax advantages. No one is talking about that in the EU’s context.
In Europe, pensions are mostly national. Almost every country has some mix of a state pension plus an employer pension, and their own personal savings. There is no EU-wide retirement savings program.
To realize the Euro-Scold’s vision, individual EU states would have to jump on board and create mechanisms for their citizens to invest those savings account moneys in the ways she wants. No one seems in much of a hurry to get in on that action over there.
EU President Ursula von der Leyen believes that Europeans are not saving money correctly.
— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) August 31, 2026
She wants to control how Europeans are allowed to save their money.
The European Commission head stated that about €10 trillion in household savings are currently sitting in bank… pic.twitter.com/A4q4sBtrtN
Reader’s Note: Find out what you’re missing behind the members-only wall. It’s time for you to take advantage of the full catalogue of common-sense thinking that comes with a PJ Media VIP membership. You’ll get access to content you didn’t even know you wanted, and you’ll be hooked. The good news is, PJ Media VIP memberships are on sale! Get 60% off of an annual VIP, VIP Gold, or VIP Platinum membership! Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off a VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member