During a CNBC interview earlier in the day, Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein reassured stock market investors with his comments on the economy. “If you divorce yourself from a general feeling of anxiety and just look at the facts and the numbers and what you can measure, you can say things look awfully good, and it feels like awfully good in a way that there could be a bit of a runway here for things to remain pretty good,” Blankfein said in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning. DOWNPLAYS TRADE WAR: Blankfein does not foresee a “a full-blown trade war” between the U.S. and China, because both countries would be damaged in the process. “We need each other on a lot of other things as well. Look at the security situation in the world with North Korea,” Blankfein said, referring to the U.S. relationship with China. “There are other things at stake here, maybe bigger things at stake that will provide another impetus for us getting together and working these issues out.” GOLDMAN’S NEXT CEO: Blankfein will likely retire later in 2018, and the issue of succession at the bank has been a widely discussed topic. David Solomon, who takes over a COO later in April, will most likely be Blankfein’s successor. “There’s a lot of complexity to our sales and trading business, our investing business, our activities overseas,” Blankfein said. “I think it’s good for him (Solomon) to be a kind of CEO-in-waiting if you will.”
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