Goldman Sachs’ Blankfein says firms should be prepared for a recession.

Blankfein was chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs from 2006 until the end of 2018 and is still senior chairman.

He spoke in an interview with CBS over the weekend (transcript is here). He was blunt on the risks of a recession for the US ahead:

• it’s definitely a risk. If I were running a big company, I would be very prepared for it. If I was a consumer, I’d be prepared for it. But it’s not baked in the cake.

Says the path for avoiding a recession is there, but …

• We’re certainly heading- it’s certainly a very, very high risk factor. And there’s- but, you know, there’s a path. It’s a narrow path. But I- I think the Fed has very powerful tools. It’s hard to finally tune them and it’s hard to see the effects of them quickly enough to alter it.

And for the

• individuals at the bottom quartile of the- of the … pie sharing, it’s going to be quite difficult and oppressive.