Bumper third-quarter profits at Goldman Sachs and another loss for Citigroup yesterday highlighted the gap between the resilience of Wall Street and the woes of Main Street, fresh evidence that two Americas are emerging from the crisis.

The diverging performance of investment banks such as Goldman and the retail operations of banks such as Citi is problematic for an administration that wants a strong Wall Street but is also under pressure to tackle the plight of ordinary people.

“When you have unemployment creeping towards 10 per cent and a sluggish economy, stories of huge profits and huge bonuses...could create difficulties if [the president] needs any more stimulus,” said Norman Ornstein, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.