Blankfein spoke about his humble beginnings growing up in housing projects in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn at a graduation speech at LaGuardia Community College two years ago. His father sorted mail for the post office, working nights because of the higher pay offered on that shift. His mother was a receptionist for a burglar-alarm company, which he referred to as “one of the few growth industries in our neighborhood.”

In recent years, Blankfein has spoken about the need for public policies that promote fairer distribution of wealth while not overly crimping its creation.

“I know I’m a big fat cat, plutocrat kind of guy, but I will tell you I’ve been the beneficiary of some of these redistribution policies,” Blankfein told business school students in South Africa in April, noting he grew up in public housing and got need-based scholarships to Harvard. “Sometimes I wish I had amnesia, because there’s lots of things I’d like to forget, but that isn’t one of them.”
 

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