Peter Thiel Says Europe Is 'A Slacker With Low Expectations'

PayPal founder, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist Peter Thiel isn't much of a fan of Europe, according to a video interview with the Financial Times.

"I think people in Europe are generally pessimistic about the future. They have low expectations, they're not working hard to change things. When you're a slacker with a pessimistic view of the future, you're likely to meet those expectations."

Ouch.

Thiel did have some recommendations for the continent, at least:

"You don't want to be a pale imitation of Silicon Valley," he added, suggesting that London was more likely to have a competitive edge in financial innovation, rather than tech.

He went on to accuse Brussels of having a "technological angst" over companies like Google, suggesting the firm was too heavily regulated.

Thiel also added his contrarian view on monopolies, using Apple's initial development of smartphones as an example:

"Monopolies are bad and deserve their reputation when things are static and the monopolies function as toll collectors... But I think they're quite positive when they're dynamic and do something new"