Lloyd Blankfein on Immigration

You might have been wondering what Wall Street thinks about the nation’s immigration crisis? OK, perhaps the thought was not on the tip of your consciousness. And yet, it’s always of some interest to read what important chief executives think of America’s chief executive. 

While the vampire squid called Goldman Sachs has contributed more than its fair share of Trump administration officials, it has generally been considered a very reliable source of Democratic campaign funds. Its nexus is in New York City and you do not get to be a power player in New York social circles by supporting any but the most anodyne Republicans. After all, former mayor Michael Bloomberg has now dedicated tens of millions of dollars to defeating Republicans in the next election. And media star Donny Deutsch has declared that everyone who voted for Trump is a Nazi. Obviously, nothing is going on between Deutsch’s ears, so he is competing for airtime with brain dead celebrities. Besides, Deutsch is suggesting that the renewed strong relationship between the Trump administration and Israel is a sure sign that Trump is a Nazi. Morons like Deutsch are respected in New York City. It’s all you need to know.

Anyway, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein stunned an audience at a New York Economic Club Tuesday by expressing sympathy for the difficulty of dealing with the immigration issue. He declared, openly and honestly, that there is no easy solution to the problem. His thought ought to be acknowledged.

Several other CEOs expressed their outrage at the Trump administration. Nothing new about that. Blankfein shed the light of reasoned skepticism into the mix. Why not be rational about policy… for a change? Especially when the facts of the case are barely in evidence.

According to the New York Times, Blankfein said:

It’s easy to criticize and it’s easy to say what you would do if you didn’t have to bear the consequences of what you decided.

The Times continues:

The options for how to handle thousands of undocumented immigrants at the border were all difficult, Mr. Blankfein said. He added that while he wouldn’t separate children from parents, it was unfair to castigate the administration for its actions.

In policy matters like this one, he said, “it’s never right against wrong or good against evil.”

“There are adverse consequences on both sides, that’s what’s really tough,” Mr. Blankfein continued, “and I have a lot of sympathy on the one hand, but appreciation for the decision-making, and when something doesn’t quite work out right, I don’t want to kill the person that made the decision.”

Important decisions are never black and white, good versus evil. To think so is to fail to see that executives earn serious money for having to decide the lesser of two evils. As an experienced chief executive looks at the problem and understands that there is no good solutions—just two courses of actions, each of which contains pluses and minuses, potential risks and potential rewards. At a time when the facts are anything but decided, this seems like sound advice.