Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the U.S. economy is “booming” but warned he was “on the cautious side” of a soft landing.
In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday at the Economic Club of New York, Dimon said the state of the U.S. economy is “incredible” and “has been booming for some time.”
The IMF forecast last week that the U.S. will grow twice as fast as any other G7 economy this year due to robust household spending and investment.
This contradicts fears over the past two years that the Federal Reserve’s rapid series of interest rate hikes would plunge the economy into recession.
Instead, the IMF forecast the U.S. economy would grow 2.7 percent this year and 1.9 percent next year, after growing at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the final quarter of 2023.
“We are in pretty good shape and so far it looks like a soft landing scenario,” Dimon said. “But let me be on the cautious side here.”
He quoted a saying from his early days on Wall Street: “Something like, ‘The markets will do whatever they have to do to hurt the most people.’ This could be one of those setups.”
Dimon, 68, who as head of the largest U.S. bank by assets often uses his public statements to comment on issues far beyond Wall Street, said he was surprised that geopolitical tensions had not had a larger impact on the price of traded oil would have been around $88 per barrel.
“I’m a little surprised that the situation in oil and gas hasn’t gotten worse,” he said, citing the risks of attacks on energy infrastructure. “It won’t take much to push oil and gas prices back to $120 or more.”
Dimon’s reputation on Wall Street led people like hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman to urge him to run for president last year. He resisted.
“I’ve always said I’d love to be president, but you’d have to anoint me, people,” Dimon said to laughter from the crowd.
He urged more people from the business world to work in government and also offered advice on who would become president next year.
“I want the next president, whoever it is, to include the other party in his Cabinet,” he said. “So if so [Joe] Biden, he’s adding some Republicans to his cabinet. If it [Donald] Trump brings some Democrats into his cabinet. I would like to see practitioners like all of us – not me, but you – return to government and help and serve.”
Dimon also praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking another five-year term.
“Modi has done an incredible job in India,” Dimon said. “I know the liberal press here, they beat the hell out of him. He lifted 400 million people out of poverty.”