Lloyd Blankfein is warming up to the administration.
President Donald Trump has been "very good" for the economy, Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, told Cheddar's senior anchor Kristen Scholer in a wide-ranging interview covering politics, the economy and business late Tuesday.
Blankfein publicly supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race. However, he's applauded Trump several times recently, pointing to an improving economy under the President and recently tweeting approvingly about Trump's speech at Davos.
"From a business point of view, which I think is very important, because I think the key to success of America has to be the strength of the economy, I think he's been very good," Blankfein said of the president.
"He certainly has conditioned us to expect some relief from redundant and cumulative regulation; he cut back taxes, which frees some money to be done, and I think he's generally positive for business."
While Blankfein said he and Trump have engaged several times since the inauguration, Blankfein has a longer history with another member of the Trump administration: Gary Cohn.
"From where I'm sitting it looks like [Cohn] is doing a good job," Blankfein said of his former colleague, who was chief operating officer at the bank.
Blankfein also said that market volatility hasn't vanished, and the bank is being "flexible" when it comes to adjusting its trading strategy in the current environment.
One asset Blankfein isn't sure about: Bitcoin.
"A lot of it is hype," he said.
For the Full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/goldman-sachs-ceo-lloyd-blankfein-weighs-in-on-market-volatility-crypto-and-trump)!
Darden, the parent company of chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, beat Wall Street estimates in its latest earnings report.
A former Facebook executive pled guilty to stealing more than $4 million from the company while she was employed there.
Rising safety concerns over water bead products marketed to kids have prompted major retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart to pull some toys off their shelves.
The Congressional Budget Office said Friday it expects inflation to nearly hit the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate in 2024, as overall growth is expected to slow and unemployment is expected to rise into 2025, according to updated economic projections for the next two years.
Intel is out with a new product to challenge other big players in the space like Nvidia and AMD.
Stocks fell after the opening bell Friday but will end on another positive week.
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Americans picked up their spending from October to November as the unofficial holiday season kicked off, underscoring that shoppers still have power to keep buying.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate dropped below 7% to its lowest level since early August, another boost for prospective homebuyers who have largely been held back by sharply higher borrowing costs and heightened competition for relatively few homes for sale.
Mortgage rates have dropped below 7% for the first time since the middle of August.
