President Barack Obama declined to criticize bonuses received by Wall Street CEO’s Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, commenting that he doesn’t “begrudge people success or wealth.”
He compared the two CEOs, of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., respectively, with athletes who are paid even more.
"First of all, I know both those guys," Obama said. "They're very savvy businessmen. And I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That's part of the free market system."
Dimon received a $17 million bonus and Blankfein received $9 million, both in the form of stock that can’t be redeemed immediately.
"Listen, $17 million is an extraordinary amount of money," Obama said in the interview. "Of course, there are some baseball players who are making more than that who don't get to the World Series either. So I'm shocked by that as well."
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