Lloyd Blankfein Raves About Trump Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin: Acted ‘Quickly, Courageously, and Largely Correctly’
Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein hailed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell — for how the administration has navigated the U.S. economy through the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with Joe Kernen for CNBC’s Squawk Box, Blankfein was asked to reflect on his glowing appraisal of Mnuchin and Powell issued on Twitter a month ago.
Not all of the bold actions in support of jobs and the economy will go smoothly and of course public health will determine outcomes. Monday morning quarterbacks will have a field day. But in Mnuchin and Powell we have the right folks on our economic issues at this critical time.
— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) April 9, 2020
When asked if he still supports the Fed’s “shock and awe” moves and Mnuchin’s fiscal programs with Congress, Blankfein said “I think they acted terrifically.”
“Undoubtedly there’s going to be 1,000 Ph.d. dissertations that will be written from Carols in libraries somewhere when things are calm and everyone can reflect and they’ll find 50 things they could have done better,” he said. “But in the fog of war, heat of battle, I think they acted very quickly, courageously and largely correctly.”
Blankfein kept up the praise by remarking that in the midst of economic uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, “it’s hard to get this stuff right, but somebody has to be bold and make the move, and they made a move.”
“If you want to sit there and say you should have gone a little bit left, 13 degrees to starboard, or something like that, easy enough to do,” Blankfein said. “I think those guys did very, very well. Not everything has worked perfectly. Who would expect that it would? And you listen to some of the talking heads go at it, I think to myself, ‘Gosh, your knees would be knocking together if you were faced with making those decisions at that moment.'”
The U.S. economy has been brought to a standstill during the coronavirus pandemic, with unemployment surging and the administration predicting a dire contraction of the GDP in the second quarter. Nonetheless, Mnuchin has maintained an optimistic outlook on the future of the economy.
Watch above, via CNBC.
