The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rebound ‘could easily run into 2023,’ Jpmorgan CEO predicts
Risks include virus variants, any rapid or long inflation rise.
Jamie Dimon said he’s optimistic the pandemic will end with a U.S. economic rebound that could last at least two years.
“I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S. economy will likely boom,” the Jpmorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said Wednesday in his annual letter to shareholders. “This boom could easily run into 2023.”
Unprecedented federal rescue programs have blunted unemployment and averted further economic deterioration, according to Dimon, who said banks entered the crisis strong and able to help communities weather the storm. Though lenders also benefited from U.S. stimulus, they built up buffers against future loan losses and performed well in stress tests, he said.
Dimon also pointed to U.S. consumers, who used stimulus checks to reduce debt to the lowest level in 40 years and stashed them in savings, giving them — like corporations — an “extraordinary” amount of spending power once lockdowns end. The latest round of quantitative easing
measures will have created more than $3 trillion in deposits at U.S. banks, a portion of which can be lent out, he said.
It could all add up to a Goldilocks moment, according to Dimon, where growth is fast and sustained while inflation ticks up gently. Threats to that outcome include virus variants and a rapid or sustained jump in inflation that prompts rates to rise sooner.
At 65, Dimon is the most prominent executive in global banking, serving as a spokesman for the industry while leading a titan of both Wall Street and consumer lending. He’s run the company since the end of 2005 and is the only CEO still at the helm after steering a major bank through the financial crisis.
The 65-page letter (plus a page of footnotes) is Dimon’s longest yet, following last year’s abbreviated one that came less than a week after he returned to work from emergency heart surgery. As always, it is wide-ranging, touching on topics from financial regulation to China to inequality and institutional racism.
Dimon, who built the biggest and most profitable U.S. bank in history, also warned shareholders that his industry’s disruption by technology is finally at hand. Shadow lenders are gaining ground. Traditional banks are being consigned to a shrinking role in the financial system.
“Banks have enormous competitive threats — from virtually every angle,” he said. “Fintech and Big Tech are here … big time!”
The letter expands on predictions Dimon has offered for years, this time declaring many of those threats have now arrived. Financial-technology firms are more formidable, offering easy-to-use, fast and smart products, he said. Shadow banks — a group that includes investment funds and online platforms offering financing to companies and consumers — are winning market share too.
Those groups have outpaced the growth of banks by some measures, often thanks to less regulation. They have also done “a terrific job in easing customers’ pain points” with slick online platforms, he said.
“While I am still confident that Jpmorgan Chase can grow and earn a good return for its shareholders, the competition will be intense, and we must get faster and be more creative,” the CEO wrote. “Acquisitions are in our future, and fintech is an area where some of that cash could be put to work.”