We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital… Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle. We have a social purpose. — Lloyd Blankfein
Ed Abbey wrote that Blankfein’s virtuous cycle, growth for the sake of growth, is “the logic of the cancer cell”. Whether or not you buy this anti-captialist mumbo jumbo, there is something cancerous about a jobless, finance-led recovery. One of the hallmarks of cancer is growth-signaling autonomy. It would seem that Blankfein’s cycle requires jobs. Thus a jobless “recovery” indicates that the finance sector has developed autonomy from the signals of the labor market.