“Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein gave his state of union on CNBC’s “Street Signs” Tuesday, saying the political environment remains difficult as Washington grapples with the sequester but the “economic underpinnings are actually better than they have been for some time.”
“We could be on the threshold of a bull market,” Blankfein said.
The Goldman executive listed extremely low interest rates, a “terrific” energy situation which can drive manufacturing and create jobs, and an ongoing turnaround in housing. But he cautioned that the U.S. needs policies to make sure it can benefit from those advantages.
(Read More: What Is Goldman Sachs?)
“A million things that can go wrong but what people under-assess is things could go right,” Blankfein said. With the U.S. stock market flirting with all-time highs, he added, “The equity market could very have it right.”
(Read More: Goldman Sachs Downgrades Global Stocks as Rally Stalls)
Blankfein’s comments come hours ahead of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening.
The U.S. has also made significant progress on dealing with its debt and deficits, Blankfein said, but there is more work to be done. He noted that with sequestration, tax increases and other measures, politicians have cut nearly $2.6 trillion — still far below the $4 trillion needed.
“When you look through it, come hell or high water, we’re going to have $2.6 trillion” in cuts, he said. “It’s not where we should be but it’s not nothing.”
He also expects a pickup in merger activity. “My expectation generally would be for where we are in the economic cycle, given the level of interest rates — which are very, very low — and equity market values which are high and moving higher — we think there should be more activity now generally than we’re seeing,” Blankfein said….”
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
