CEO of banking titan Wells Fargo, Charles Scharf, is warning that the wealth gap in the United States is worsening.
In a new interview on CNBC Squawk Box, Scharf says that the bank’s own data suggests the overall state of the US economy is “remarkably stable.”
However, he says that job creation, spending and account balance data indicate economic conditions are getting worse for lower-income Americans, many of whom are living financially fragile lives where one unexpected expense can have dire consequences.
“There is this big dichotomy between higher-income and lower-income consumers, which continues and is a real issue. And when you look at just the overall data in terms of jobs, it’s undeniable in terms of just job creation. Things actually feel very good today, certainly relative to what you think they could be. But it’s not equal across wealth spectrums…
We see fairly consistent spending levels across low end and high end, except the low end is spending the money that they have. Their balances are below where they were pre-pandemic levels. They are living on the edge. [It] hasn’t impacted credit yet, but they’re certainly not becoming more healthy and the affluent customers are bringing up the averages.”