Ex-Goldman CEO Blankfein Warns of ‘Fire’ Risk in Private Markets

March 25, 2026, 11:00 PM UTC

The accumulation of unsold private assets on investors’ balance sheets is a warning that some may be overvalued — and a spark could trigger a widespread markdown, according to Lloyd Blankfein, former chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“At some point there needs to be a forcing function or a reckoning that causes you to come to grips with what your balance sheet really is worth,” Blankfein said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua.

WATCH: Lloyd Blankfein, the former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, remains wary of systemic “kindling” despite a banking sector that is currently better capitalized than in previous crises. Source: Bloomberg

The former Wall Street chief, who spent much of his career as a trader before ...

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