On this episode of The Forum, hosted by CNBC’s Becky Quick, Lloyd Blankfein, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, joins Sonali Basak, Chief Investment Strategist at iCapital, for a wide-ranging conversation on financial markets, systemic risk, and the forces that shape economic cycles. Blankfein reflects on the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis, the rise of private credit, and why periods of stability can often create the conditions for future market disruptions. Drawing on decades of experience at the center of global finance, he shares his perspective on risk, regulation, asset valuations, and the warning signs investors and policymakers should be watching today. New episodes of The Forum with Becky Quick drop monthly. Subscribe for exclusive conversations with global policymakers, business leaders, and thought leaders shaping the world economy. Host: Becky Quick Guests: Lloyd Blankfein (Speaker), Sonali Basak (Moderator) Produced by: AMZG Media To learn more about The Economic Club of New York, visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Inside the Next Financial Crisis with Lloyd Blankfein

The Forum with Becky Quick

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Forum with Becky Quick

## Transcript

I'm Becky Quick of CNBC and your host of The Forum. I'll be guiding you through exclusive conversations among some of the world's global leaders, conversations previously held behind club doors, but today we invite you in. The Economic Club of New York serves as the premier forum for nonpartisan discussion dedicated to connecting the world's brightest minds with preeminent public and private sector leaders. A nonprofit, 501C3, the club is a 115-year-old platform for the conversations that help shape the future of our world.

The Economic Club of New York, brightest minds, critical conversations, catalyst for innovation. If you had to do it all over again and change something about not just the culture of Goldman, but the culture of Wall Street, what would it be? Well, you know, I'm a markets guy, so I'm more in the responder net to what happens. I take certain things, you know, I think things fall the way they are for a reason. What would I like? I'd like the birds to, you know, sun to shine every day and the birds to chirp every day.

If I were in charge, I'd make sure that that happened. But I do think that, I think Wall Street does a very good job of responding in the uncertainties that exist at every moment about what is going to happen next. And being good contingency planners and very resilient and great, great responders.

And, of course, gets killed by the reviewers and the pundits who have after-acquired information to look back and say, aha, oh, God, that's not what I would have done. Just like nobody voted for Nixon except he won in a landslide. Everybody remembers. Everybody always remembers being right because they're pundits and pundits don't have P&Ls. People with P&Ls can't walk away from their, you know, can't deny what they had thought in the past.

And so I think we have a system that allows for animal spirits. And with that comes the inevitability. If you ask me what I wish, I wish it would never go off the rails. But if you're going to have animal spirits and that's going to produce a kind of cycle where you have a bad outcome and then everybody is nervous about risk, husband in capital, afraid to take risk.

And over time, the memory of the trauma, of the reckoning, of the crisis ebbs and people get a little bit more sporty, which is what's happening today. We can talk about today. And, again, dimmer memories. People retired. New people came in who only read about the financial crisis or the tech bubble in books so it doesn't quite register and get sportier and sportier and then sows the seed for the next crisis and the next reckoning, in which case everybody tightens up.

Bad assets get off of balance sheets. It gets ship-shape again. And it takes another couple of years for that to go. And guess what? That's why we have a business cycle and that's why we have historical cycles. It's because – and that's – you know, can you imagine if we all lived fo...

Inside the Next Financial Crisis with Lloyd Blankfein

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Inside the Next Financial Crisis with Lloyd Blankfein

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.