Washington — Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank, said the ongoing war in Ukraine should serve as a “tipping point” that would appease US leaders of a “false sense of security.”
“Ukraine is a tipping point where, you know, maybe all this kind of delusion that we had, that somehow the world is at peace and everything would be okay, that should have been shattered,” Dimon told “Face the Nation.” “. moderator Margaret Brennan in an exclusive interview that aired on Sunday. “And so we should be thinking about how the United States can do great in the next 100 years. What policies should we have?”
Dimon said he has felt a “false sense of security that you’ve had this war, you know, for nine months or whatever, and that it’s somehow okay.”
“If you go to Europe, they are taking this much more seriously than the Americans,” he said. “They’re on the front line. You had those missiles going to Poland. You have, basically, nuclear blackmail. I mean, it’s as serious as you can get.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February pushed up the prices of commodities such as oil and natural gas almost overnight, while also sparking a wave of migration to Western Europe and exacerbating food insecurity.
“This is the Western world under attack,” Dimon said. “And wars, if you read the history of wars, they don’t start, they don’t end like people think they would when they started.”
Dimon, who has served as chief executive of JPMorgan Chase since 2005, said the current geopolitical situation is “turbulent” and “it’s like anything could go wrong.”
He also pointed to specific challenges stemming from competition with China and debt in emerging markets. He said the United States should plan how to compete in the next century and work with allies. “Otherwise, you’re not going to end up with the world that we really want,” she said.
On the inflation front, Dimon said the Federal Reserve was likely behind the curve by raising interest rates to combat rising prices.
“I think the Fed, you know, anybody can look and say you’re late. I hate questioning people, because I make mistakes all the time,” Dimon said. “But now they’ve caught up.”
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested that there could be a slowdown in the pace of interest rate increases. But Dimon said he thinks there may be room for more action.
“They may have to do a little bit more after that, which will obviously surprise people,” Dimon said.
He said he believes the Fed will ultimately prevail in its efforts to contain record inflation and move it closer to its preferred level of 2%.
“I think they’re going to win. I don’t think that’s going to happen for 10 years,” Dimon said. “The only question is how long does it take to get to a number that people think you’ve won.”
Still, the economic climate and the path forward for inflation are uncertain. At an event at the Brookings Institution last week, Powell reiterated that it’s hard to know how long inflation will stay high: “The truth is that the path forward for inflation remains highly uncertain.”
However, Dimon warned of a situation where emerging markets, which have taken on considerable debt in response to the pandemic, have to pay more interest on their loans. That could squeeze already tight budgets and create political instability.
