Goldman Sachs’s Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein endured some 600 hours of chemo therapy, he told CNBC during an interview early Wednesday in New York. It was one of the first public appearances for the 61-year-old bank boss since being diagnosed with a “highly curable” form of lymphoma back in September.

Blankfein sounded upbeat but looked gaunt, hairless and pale as he discussed the outlook for the U.S. economy, sluggish global growth and Goldman’s own business.

“You know to say the least, it’s an interesting fun time in the market and this is what we signed on to do,” Blankfein said, referring to a topsy-turvy global stock market that has been roiled by plunging oil prices CLH26, and signals that emerging economies, including China, are facing a slowdown that could spill over into the rest of the world.

Displaying his typical dry wit, Goldman Sachs Group’s GS, -2.91% Blankfein drew a comparison with his own chemotherapy and central-bank policies that have resulted in ultraloose monetary regimes and negative interest rates in wide swaths of the globe, noting that central banks’ accommodative postures might be better than the alternative.

“Right now I’m trying to deal with the cure,” Blankfein said of his cancer treatments. “Compared with going over the ledge and dipping into deflation…I would do what they are doing,” Blankfein said. He also noted that the market has a tendency to question the response of policy makers. “It’s baked in the cake that whatever they do that someone will criticize them,” he said.

Read: This map shows all the central banks with negative interest rates

Here are a few other highlights from his appearance, including the full video below:

“I’m generally sanguine, I think we muddle through,” he said of the markets. “I think some of this is an overreaction to the overreaction of assets being so swollen,” he said, regarding global downdraft in stock markets, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.46% and the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.84% , which are both off more than 6% year to date.

“I think things are much better than the prevailing sentiment would indicate,” Blankfein said.