Goldman's Blankfein: Income inequality is 'destabilizing'
There are few Americans who have done as much to accelerate economic inequality as much as Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs. Goldman paid its bankers an astonishing average of $383,000 in 2013 — over eight times the median income — after profits for the year rose by 5 percent to $8 billion. Blankfein himself takes him over $2 million in salary, on top of the tens of millions he often earns in bonuses.
But Blankfein worries that inequality is a big problem, calling it "very destabilizing" during an appearance on This Morning on Thursday.
Blankfein argued that one way to fix income inequality is to grow the economy. But he also acknowledged that "too much of the GDP of the country has gone to too few of the people." So he clarified that "if you grow the pie but too few people enjoy the benefits of it, the fruit, then you'll have an unstable society."
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Watch the CBS interview below. --John Aziz
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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.