J.P. Morgan’s Dimon Tells Lawmakers, ‘Let’s Just Do It’
“Just do it,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon urged lawmakers during the New York Times Dealbook Opportunities for Tomorrow Conference in New York when speaking of the ever-approaching fiscal cliff. “We are one decision away from restoring our fiscal and moral authority from around the world.”
According to Dimon, if Washington politicians would “grasp rational fiscal policy” and avoid sending the US over the “fiscal cliff,” the US economy could potentially grow at a 4 percent rate, and monthly job creation could exceed 200,000. Although Dimon doesn’t believe going over the cliff will necessarily put the US economy back into recession, as many economists have forecasts, he sees no reason to take that gamble.
“It might be a big deal. We shouldn’t take the risk,” he said. “I think it’s a big deal that we do it right because it can save jobs, get the country going again, return confidence both in the United States and globally.”
Dimon said he expects a workable fiscal policy will increase taxes, but needs to be offset by sensible spending cuts. According to Dimon, tax increases should affect a broad sample of society, and include everything from the tax holiday passed two years ago to the Bush administration’s across-the-board tax cuts. Sensible spending cuts should reduce the size of government—particularly the military.
“Businesses want a rational deal because most people think it would be great for the United States of America,” said Dimon, who maintained that tax increases be “linked inexorably together with rational entitlement reform.”
