Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein talks Wall Street crises, past and future

"It's been a long time since we've had a bad event," said Lloyd Blankfein. "It's been 17 years since the financial crisis." The former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who led the bank through that historic crisis, says it happened before, so it'll happen again. In:

"It's been a long time since we've had a bad event," said Lloyd Blankfein. "It's been 17 years since the financial crisis." The former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who led the bank through that historic crisis, says it happened before, so it'll happen again.

"Think of it as kindling on the floor of a forest," he said. "Eventually, some spark will happen that in different times might not have set the forest on fire, but when this kind of kindling accumulates, some spark will do that. Will that happen eventually? Inevitably, it will happen."

What was not inevitable was the Bronx-born, Brooklyn-bred billionaire's path to the top of the C-Suite.

Blankfein grew up in public housing in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York, in a small apartment shared with his grandmother. "I shared a bedroom with either my sister or my grandmother until I went off to college," he said. "The neighborhood became more dangerous. The high school I went to eventually was shut down as a failing high school, but it was pretty much failing when I was there."

His father held down two jobs, including as a clerk at the post office. To get a 10-percent bonus, he worked the night shift: "I barely saw him. I wish I had known him better."