Jamie Dimon says he tells people he wouldn’t mind being the president of the United States. But he also makes it clear he has no intenion of or desire to actually run for president.
Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorganChase, drew laughter from the crowd at the Detroit Economic Club event at which he was the keynote speaker last week when he downplayed any potential run for office in response to a question from moderator Dennis Archer, Jr.
Archer, the chairman and CEO of Sixteen42 Ventures and the son of the former mayor of Detroit, posed the question as Dimon’s appearance was about to begin.
“I do not intend to run for president,” Dimon said with a smile. “I tell people I would love to be president, so you’re going to have to anoint me. I think we torture our politicians. I do think the country needs a lot of help and a lot of support.”
The discussion covered a range of national and local issues, ranging from how America should be dealing with China to how important diversity policies are and how the $200 million investment JPMorgan Chase made in Detroit 10 years ago has changed things.
Dimon said the successful comeback Detroit has made can be a learning experience for the country as a whole.
“Detroit is a perfect example that collaboration works and yelling and screaming at each other doesn’t,” Dimon said, comparing it to national politics. “Collaboration is house-by-house, block-by-block, company-by-company. Without good government, it wouldn’t be possible. We see this around the world. If you’ve got bad local government it’s impossible to fix anything.”
Dimon said the bank made the investment in Detroit a decade ago to see “can we make a change?” The company looked at putting up “X dollars” to see how many jobs it would create. He said it was a “coordinated, massive” effort that was part philanthropy and part business.
It’s true, he said, JPMorgan Chase’s market share went up 10 to 15 percent (in some places even more), but the company also continued doing what it did best: Banking. JPMorgan Chase banks 60,000 middle-market companies, 100 countries around the world, development banks around the world and some 80 million Americans.
“That’s what we do … We lift up society,” Dimon said. “It’s not always about profit … it’s about doing the right thing.
“We learned so much here we’re doing it elsewhere,” he added. “We call them “mini Detroits,” including in Paris. When you look at it, how we got smarter, we shared … some of the things that work and don’t work. A lot of lessons. It’s not Democrat or Republican if crime goes down, or if lights are turned on or hospitals work better. There were a lot of lessons from what we learned here, and we try to share that openly.”
Engage with China
Dimon said the U.S. should engage more with China and not worry about them so much, pointing out the U.S. gross domestic product is $80,000, while China’s is more like $15,000.
“China is no 10-foot giant,” Dimon said. “We have all the food, water and energy we need … they don’t. They import 11 mllion barrels (of oil) a day. We have neighbors like Mexico and Canada. They have the Philippines, Vietnam, Russia, Pakistan … it’s a tough part of the world.
“Every one of those nations is rearming,” he added. “If you think those nations are happy with China … China has (upset) them all.
The Federal Reserve and Ukraine
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates 11 times in 12 months, but Dimon isn’t sure they’re getting it right. He said the Fed was actually a “day late and a dollar short.”
“We were still spending like drunken sailors, rates were at 0%, inflation had already taken off,” he said. “They did the right thing early in Covid, (and) they just continued doing it. Be cautious and be humble about this. I think they realize they don’t really know so they’re trying to navigate it now. They don’t want to sink the economy.
Dimon believes interest rates will have to go higher, likely in the new year, maybe 4-6 months from now. That point, he said, inflation will likely be at 4% and it “won’t be coming down for a whole bunch of different reasons.”
“Meanwhile, we have a very strong economy,” he said. “But don’t confuse today with tomorrow. This other stuff is kind of tomorrow and if and when it affects the current economy, we’ll see.”
Spending and the inflation rate aren’t what Dimon considers the most significant thing that will affect the economy, particularly in the long term. So what will?
Ukraine.
“I think the most significant thing about the freedom of democracy for the next 100 years, and I think that battle will be fought in the next 10 years … is Ukraine,” Dimon told the DEC crowd. “This Ukraine war is affecting all global relationships. Economically it’s got immediate effects on oil, gas, food, migration … It’s affecting our relationships with the Middle East, Africa, China, all trade relationships. The whole world is remilitarizing.
“The most important thing is that we get this right,” he added. “The only thing that can fix it is American leaderhship. There is no other nation with the military muscle, the economic muscle, the moral muscle that can lead.”
Economic prosperity
Dimon believes the foundation of all that works in America is the country’s economic prosperity. The problem is, he said, that the country does a poor job with it over the last quarter-century, particularly for the lower-income Americans.
“We’ve done a terrible job for the lower 30% of our income society … Think of rural areas, inner cities,” he said. “I think the bottom 30% makes less than $18 an hour, and they’re the ones without medical insurance, their health is worse, their schools are worse, they die younger … that’s what we’ve done.
Dimon said he’d increase taxes on wealthier Amerians, but then give it to the lower 30% in the form, perhaps, of a doubled Earned Income Tax Credit.
“If you make $14,000 a year, the government gives you $12,000,” he said. “That money would go directly into neighbors who need it and it would be used by mothers and fathers to uplift their families, and it would be spent locally.”
Importance of diversity
Noting the advancements JPMorgan Chase has made in diversity, Dimon said he believes a strong diversity program is a “business imperative,” for three reasons:
- It’s the right thing to do. “The Black community has been left behind,” he said. “It’s been 175 years since the Civil War, and it’s not even remotely close to parity. We should recognize that and do something about it.”
- The talent pool. “If I’m picking the best team from everybody, and you’re picking the best team from middle-aged white men, I’m going to have the better team,” he said.
- Community, the actual diversity. “If you go to Chinatown, or Greektown or Indian Town, the people there know more about those communities, how to reach out to them, how they relate to people,” Dimon said. “It helps to reach out to other communities, and we do that to all communities, not just one community.”
He said the murder of George Floyd changed things.
“You learn how to get better at all these things,” he said. “With the murder of George Floyd we doubled down with the DEI effort … and I think it’s the right thing to do. There’s nothing wrong with a company reaching out to different communities. We’re going to continue doing that … it’s just the right thing to do.”
Characteristics of a president
Dimon doesn’t want to run for president, but he has definite opinions on what kind of person he wants to see in the Oval Office. And he isn’t sure the last few administrations have done it very well.
He said he looks for a broad set of characteristics in a potential president, not just one thing. He said the president needs to be able to educate the public, explain the decisions being made and not just read the public opinion polls, whether it’s about hot-button subjects like Ukraine, education and anything else “we need to fix.”
“Bring very good people around them … There’s no job you can do on your own, particularly being president,” he said. “You need the best and the brightest around you, and that’s kind of been stopped in the last couple of presidencies. It’s more, who are people comfortable with, as opposed to being the best and brightest.”
