Business and consumer confidence, the result of an improved attitude toward business coming from the Obama administration, will result in good growth in the US, Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group, told CNBC Friday.
“The American story, frankly, is a pretty good one," Schwarzman, also co-founder of the private equity firm , told CNBC from Europe.
“There’s a recognition that unless the business community is putting its shoulder to the wheel and helping to drive the economy, that it's not going to be a good outcome for anyone in America," he added. "And what we all care about is that the country moves forward."
Schwarzman said he doesn't anticipate a huge growth rate (maybe 3 or 4 percent or somewhere in between) coming off the severe recession, “but [that] it's in the acceptable zone, given the fact that there's still a lot of deleveraging going on.”
He added that he believes Europeansare committed to success of the euro currency, but that banks there are worried about the capital requirements and liquidity proposals of Basel III.
“The first tranche of that concern was over capital requirements, and now it's over the new liquidity proposals,” said Schwarzman. “And a number of heads of banks have really said that that's going to get in the way of their extension of credit, and that's not an optimistic element for economic growth.”
Watch the full interview with Stephen Schwarzman on the Kudlow Report at 7pm, ET, on CNBC.