Jamie Dimon On The U.S. Economy

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Asked today about restoring investor confidence, JPMorgan chairman Jamie Dimon observed that investors face two major uncertainties:

1. How much will housing prices go down?
2. How bad will the recession get?

Hmmm, those are the same questions I’ve been asking. At least now I know they’re the right questions. I was hoping Mr. Dimon might know the answers.

Mr. Dimon waxed somewhat ambivalent about the need for changes in government financial regulation. He’s in favor of it, I think. “A lot of the rules and regulations we live under are closer to the Civil War than they are to today,” he said.

But he also warned that “regulation is now a global job,” with global consequences.

Mr. Dimon rejected the excuse that oil is at $140 a barrel because of speculation. “We knew 40 years ago that we had an oil problem,” he said. “We have done nothing.” (Just yesterday, Jon Taplin recalled a long-ago speech by President Jimmy Carter, calling for action on energy. Mr. Carter was ignored, of course.)

And that was about all I could make out of Mr. Dimon’s speech filled with high-finance jargon. Probably I missed a lot.

Mr. Dimon opened and closed by saying cheerfully: “The future of America is very, very bright.” I don’t think he was talking about the near-term future, and it wasn’t clear if he was talking medium-term or long-term.

To my untrained layman’s ear, it sounded like he was whistling past the graveyard. — Bernie Hayden

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Tags: Financial regulation, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, Oil, Prices, Recession