Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took credit for elevated bank stocks Monday, telling a conference that included many in the finance industry to thank the Trump administration for advancing regulatory and tax reform.
“You should all thank me for your bank stocks doing better,” Mnuchin told the audience at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
The Milken Institute is a think tank that publishes research on many financial industry-related topics. The conference was sponsored by firms such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, State Street and many other big financial firms.
Bank stocks have been among the biggest winners following President Trump’s election, thanks largely to the perception that they would benefit from Trump’s tax-cutting, regulation-easing agenda. Mnuchin is responsible for pursuing many of those goals.
Shares of Goldman Sachs, for instance, are up nearly 25 percent since the day before Trump’s election. Citigroup is up by almost 20 percent.
Mnuchin, himself a former banker and Goldman Sachs alumnus, continued to set expectations high Monday, telling the group that the administration aims to get to a 3 percent annual growth rate for the economy within two years.
