JPMorgan’s Dimon calls for change in annual letter
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that his closely watched annual letter to investors was written with shareholders, employees and the community in mind. But other parties might be interested in what he has to say: the White House and Congress, as the high-profile banker sounded off on policy issues in his investor letter in a very big way.
“This is the first time I probably ever took on public policy as just a main theme,” Dimon said in an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Andy Serwer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday after the letter’s release. “I’ve mentioned it before many times, but this is the first time I put it down and said I’m going to deal with public policy.”
Dimon devoted one of three sections — 12 of the letter’s 45 pages — to a wide-ranging policy blueprint, as well as another 15 pages focused specifically on financial regulation. In the policy section, he weighs in on topics including education and infrastructure, immigration and corporate taxes, speaking out about labor participation, spending on wars and student lending.
And though he maintains that the United States is an “exceptional” country, with the world’s best military, hospitals, universities and an entrepreneurial culture, the typically optimistic CEO also wrote that “something is wrong” in America, spelling out
a host of concerns regarding the challenges the country faces.
Dimon, a member of President Donald Trump’s CEO advisory council whose name was floated as a possible Treasury Secretary in the Trump administration and who has contributed to Democrats in the past, joins other high-profile CEOs who’ve devoted parts of their investor letters this year to policy or politics. In February, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett promoted the U.S. economy’s dynamism, pointing out the value of immigrants and entitlements, while General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt zeroed in on trade, warning the country will be “less Dimon
of a leader in trade” while expressing hope about some of the new policies.
Dimon said he thinks business has a responsibility to weigh in. Though some CEOs “don’t want to do that because they don’t want to be a target,” he said in the interview at the Chamber, “I think it’s particularly important for business today to take an active role in trying to fix the problems that this country does have.”
Like Buffett and Immelt, Dimon did not identify Trump by name, but wrote about policies that reveal how his views compare with the administration’s. Like the president, Dimon said he “strongly disagrees” with economists who think the country is stuck with slower growth and lower productivity. For example, factors such as rising health-care costs and defaults on student loans, which aren’t usually reflected in economic models, have likely hurt growth. Working to improve those issues could help the economy.
He said the “regulatory environment is unnecessarily complex, costly and sometimes confusing” and wrote in favor of corporate tax reform, saying the current system “is driving capital and brains overseas.”
He also echoed an understanding, at least, of the populist forces that drove Trump’s campaign. Factors such as declining wages, high health care costs and income inequality “all have created deep frustration,” he wrote, as well as a “disenchantment” with trade and globalization.