As banks post blowout earnings, CEOs reckon with America’s inequality gap

In today’s CEO Daily: CEOs are confronting the fact that many Americans are losing out on the boom.

The big leadership story: The factors behind IBM’s stock nosedive.

The markets: Mostly down amid a chipmaker selloff.

Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Bankers understand money and the consequences for those who don’t have enough of it. The top 0.1% of U.S. households now account for almost six times as much of the country’s wealth as the bottom half, according to Federal Reserve data. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase sees it, telling a reporter that anti-rich sentiment is surging because “we have, in fact, left the lower-income folks behind.” (JPMorgan just reported its best-ever quarter, as did Goldman Sachs and many others.)

While resilience was the catch phrase of the first quarter among bank CEOs, the latest blowout quarter may be prompting a bit of soul-searching. Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf shared concerns about affordability while reporting a 17% profit jump. At a gathering about a month ago, one C-suite leader in financial services declared that “what we need is a nationwide campaign that celebrates paying taxes as a civic duty, something that shows how taxpayers have built this country.” When I followed up, they declined to put that comment on the record, saying they’re not sure taxpayer money is currently being well spent.

I spoke with BNY CEO Robin Vince........

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