Jamie Dimon of $JPM on Fiscal Cliff, Bear, USA, the Whale & More [VIDEO]

JPMorgan’s Dimon Bullish on the U.S.

Jonathan Golub, UBS, weighs in on JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon’s upbeat comments on the U.S. economy.

Transcript:

watching that one. the markets may be concerned about the fiscal cliff and a weak economy but during that speech today that we just heard at the council on foreign relations, jpmorgan’s ceo jamie dimon says the u.s. is still the best place to invest. this attitude somehow how woe is me, how terrible, america’s lost — it’s just not true, folks. hopes to who travel around the worle have the best military on the planet, we will foryears. we have the widest, deepest, most transparent capital markets in spite of what happened. they’re still the best — i’mtalking about in all of its glory, asset management, venturecapital,equity, markets. we have the best businesses on the planet, small, medium and large. is he right? joining us, invest strategy specialist at ubs, jonathan golub. i half-share his sentiments. are we the best player on the world stage today to invest? i think probably yes. on the other hand, we do havethese fiscal overhangs and it is not just a political issue. we have substantial government debt and fiscal imbalances thatneed to get addressed and that mean that we’re a slower grower than we’ve been. would i rather be here than anyplace?yes, i would. we have a sell-off on wall street today. you tend to take a longer term some of this is being linked to the doom and gloom about earnings season and — or expectations of doom and gloom of earnings seasons. that’s been out there for awhile. how much of that is factored in to the market and how much of it do you believe? i think some of it has been factored in. the important thing is we actually expect earnings to belower in the third quarter this year than it was in the third quarter of 2011 by about 4%. that’s not a good thing. i think what the market is selling off today on is a couple of specific company reports. cummins provided some negative statements, as did alcoa, basically said things are not only ugly now but are likely to stay ugly for a period of time. i think you’re right, if we lookbeyond this earnings season, i think the real issue issomething like 4%, 5% earnings growth next year. not as good as it’s been in the past but not a disaster. we have the election coming up and everybody’s handicapping what the market will do depending on what the outcome is. do you play in that game? i mean have you thought about it? what are your expectations? obviously we have thought about it. let’s first talk about where the expectations are. the good news is — at leastgood news for tv folks is we now have a real race. i think a few weeks ago the expectation was obama’s in office, there’s no real election. now it is getting very, very close. the key is a surprise will move the markets. romney will be positive for themarket. not only because of less regulation and things like thatbut also the fiscal cliff debate will go better with romneybecause republicans will probably own both houses ofcongress and the presidency if romney wins. to me that’s — over the next three months or so, that’s the most important issue.what if mr. romney does not win? if mr. romney doesn’t win,effectively you have status quo. we think the fiscal cliff debategoes much worse. first you don’t get the romney bounce, you probably get a bit of a sell-off on that. the bigger issue is the end of this year, i think it is going to be the summer of last yeararound the debt ceiling debate. i think it is going to be realreally ugly. what areas of the market do you like with the longer term view past the election? right. if you look out beyond just the election and fiscal cliff issues, i think the key is, if we’re in a slower economic environment, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, you need companies that underline earnings growth. you’ll find that in a variety of areas, you’ll find it in good staples company andtechnology companies. but being able to identify that to me is more important than simply buying dividend yields. as far as specific sectors are concerned of the defensive sectors, we would really rather rather be in staples or health care, more than utilities which we aren’t really a fan of. tech has really taken it on the chin lately, but there is the ability to grow in a weakenvironment for technology stocks. jonathan golub, thank you for joining us today.

Jamie Dimon: Not Worried About JPMorgan, Worried About Country

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, discusses current banking regulations, and says “we have to accommodate all of the new rules and regulations, and we are going to do it,” he says, and that “we should do these things right for the future of the United States of America, not for JPMorgan.”

Transcript:

if you talk about — i think to your point, dodd-frank, i think 25%’s been done. it is being fought in the courts now. huge — i think — it is really hard for me to calculate a number but i’m going to tell you it is going to cost us, overhead, well over a billion dollars.we get rules from brussels. a lot of these are contradictory, overlapping. all i want at one point as we sit down and have aconversation, what do we really immediate for safety andsoundness and all that and what’s creating unnecessaryburden. that burden is going to be higher the smaller you are, in my opinion. i’m not in favor of that. i don’t want to hurt community banks. they have a great role in life. i just think you need collaboration to get it done. it is just not going to get doneproperly if we’re just always fighting with each other. the most important — capital and liquidity. and there are 398 other rules.but you should know we’re trying to work with everyone toaccommodate — weave no choice. i mean we have to accommodate all the — we are going to do it and we’ll do it in a way in the spirit and letter of the law. that’s what we’re going to do. that doesn’t mean we won’t comment on it because regulators get very mad at me when i xwhent comment at all.we will comment. but the end of confers should be, forget jpmorgan. we’re going to be fine no matter what. believe me.i’m not worried aboutjpmorgan. i am worried about the country.we should do these things right for the future of the unitedstates of america, not jpmorgan. time for one last one here. let me apologize in advance to the many people with their hands up. it is just demand exceeds supply. well known market problem. mr. dimon, thanks. garrett mitchen and i write themitchell report. i want to ask you arguably a too big to fail question but this is not about jpmorgan chase or barclays. it is about the u.s. and china. china is on the brink of a majorchange in its leadership. it has written its own sort ofprescription for new economic directions which they know theyhave to initiate or they, too, will fall off the cliff. we may or may not be looking at a major change in leadership in this country. but we are looking at the fiscal cliff and i wonder from yourperspective asomebody who does business all around the world and despite your protestations about not really knowing much about politics, how you assess the relative chances of success moreme arica dealing in the short term with its fiscal cliff and longer term with its ability to get some semblance of good governance and with the chinese to be able to do the same and make the changes in their economy so that the two largest economies in the world will help things stay online.china has huge issues it’s got to deal with. okay? there are really two. they’ve got to broaden out their democracy.remember our democracy started as white men over a certain age owned property. 90 million people in the communist party voted. they’ve got to broaden it out. every society in the middleclass decrates some form of democracy over time and it ishard. they’re worried about losing social control and unrest.they’ve got to broaden out their economy. think of the financial system and the spin wheel. it’s not the most important thing in an economy but where investors of all type — pension funds, insurance, individuals meet through vehicles of all type to invest in projects and companies, start-ups, venture, r & d. they can’t macro manage down the reed. they have two huge things to gothrough. we as the united states sho help them do that. it is in our interest that they grow peacefully, that they can take care of their 1.3 billion people, et cetera. there are going to becomplaints. but hank paulson had that strategic economic dialogue — we have to do that. it is the right thing to do. america will have the — america’s might, in my opinio is based upon three things. economic power, which is the foundation of all other things and all jobs and all buildings and all — i know when i see some of the people standing in front of the hoover dam — the government. that was actually built by bechtel. it was your taxpayer money. the know-how usually comes out of american business. i checked who built the space ships that land on the moon. it was a predecessor to boeing. these are collaborations through government and business and economic and military are directly related and the united states will be the militarypower for a long time period, as long as we’re the economicpower. i thinm the moral power of the united states is called freedom and democracy. and human rights and rule of law and those things. we shouldn’t forget that. you go to china, they look at america, they say how lucky we are to have those things and the businesses and why are we complaining so much about our situation? they have a much tougher one. but i think we should help them but make sure we’re strong. we should never give up on our strengths — which i said are economic, military around moral. folks, thank you very much. appreciate it. thank you, sir. jamie dimon taking questions after a long ranging interview covering a number of topics at the council on foreignrelations. ty, he is always very frank, outspoken,colorful. but things tt stuck out to me in this was he re-affirmed the fact that he thought that the united states was the best place on earth to invest right now. he said that basically europe doesn’t have the way yet to get out of their mess, altugh they do have the will to a certain extent. a lot of very interesting comments also about what regulation is costing his bank every year. and some of his themes are es that are familiar to those who have followed mr. dimon in certainly recent years. one of them is the need forcollaboration and not antagonism between business and government, specifically business and the federal government, and that he saw the real benefits. he concluded there on the idea that it was a aboration, basically, between the federalgovernment and a predecessor of boeing that put a person on the moon 40-some years ago. and those are interesting points, a theme that he has struck many times and it is one of the things that i think has entered into this life-long democrat’s relationship with the current administration. it’s where he has parted company with them. it’s going to be interesting. he says he’s not interested in running for public office. but you just wonder whether or not he wouldn’t accept a treasury secretary position if indeed one was offered under either administration.yeah. he was certainly explicit about that in his comments in vanity fair magazine, that he dn’t want it, i shall not seek, nor will i accept — but on the other hand hank paulson didn’t want it either but he took it because of the financial situation the unitedstates was in at the time. exactly. now to bertha coombs who’sbeen following the remarks of jamie dimon and has some of the excerpts and overview for us. one of the interesting thingswas the issue of bear stearns that came up. of course, jpmorgan bought bear stearns on the eve of the company perhaps needing to file for bankruptcy, facilitated by the fed, and now jpmorgan is being sued in a civil suit over some of those derivatives that bear stearns sold. asked whether he’d do it again, he says — it’s a close call but he also specified, we wereworking with the government, we were helping the fed out.listen. we were asked to buy bear stearns. it was not as if the fed did us a favor. no, we did them a favor. had they gone bankrupt, all of these lawsuits would be no money. there would be no lawsuits. i’m going to say we’ve lost 5 billion mr. to $10 billion on the bear stearns things now. yes, i put it in the unfaircategory. overall he says it is unfair that they are being looked at as having benefited from it had when clearly now this is goingto be something they have to deal with. interestingly, he was making all these wide ranging comments. he’ll be talking to analysts on friday when jpmorgan reports

Jamie Dimon Speaks About ‘London Whale’

“Businesses make mistakes, they learn from it, and they get better for it,” said JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon talking about the “London Whale” debacle, reports CNBC’s Bertha Coombs.

Transcript:

what is jpmorgan doing to help faith bases organizations borrow to immediate our capital needs over the long term. right now is a good climate for us, for example. my mon sthaer is 1,600 years old. we want to borrow now and pay it over time.how much you want to borrow? what rate? that’s a great question. we bank governments not-for-profits. i know we bank churches. i just don’t know the actual numbers. i’d be happy to share with them if d me an e-mail. that’s what we do, advisepeople, what’s reasonable and not reasonable. a lending business, banks, unlike other institutions, often has to say no.sometimes we say we’re not going to do it and it is not good foryou, either. like selling someone too much liquor or letting them have that fifth drink at the bar. send me an e-mail. taking a slightly broader answer to that question, take a minute, talk about your definition — here you are this large organization, you have enormous profits. what is your sense of corporate social responsibility? what sort of program — what does jpmorgan define for itself — i’ve never had a conflict over this. my job is to build a healthy, vibrant company. and i want — in every community you operate in, including greece, italy and spain, for to you think we’re a good corporate citizen. no different — i really mean this — than that corner store. that corner store participates in the community, they help the little league or local church. they participate, give people summer jobs — that’s jpmorgan’s ceo jamie dimon making news this hour. he spoke on a wide variety of issues before the council on foreign relations. monitoring the whole discussion taking place. you have some of the headlines, bertha. one of the things that struck me, he said that anywhere on earth if you could pick a place to invest, it would be the united states. that would be the strongest place that you could put your money. and also he said, businesses make mistakes in addressing the london whale issue. he said that’s what business is about. you make yotakes and you learn from them. he also sort of says, in a way, that government is headed towards making a very big mistake.jpmorgan’s jamie dimon, never one to mince words, speaking at the council of foreign relations in washington this morning.he warns legislators that going off the so-called fiscal cliff is an unacceptable option for the nation and the economy. there are all these potential outcomes. i would defy any one of you toreally know what they are. therefore, it is irresponsible policy just to say, let’s see. let’s not see. i mean risk management says let’s try to avoid that. dimon says he has even biggerissues with the tone in washington regarding americanbusiness right now. if you think that washington and business can go to war with each other and it is going to be good — terrible error. i mean collaboration is what should happen. we should have had collaboration. we were in a crisis. every busy know wanted help to get things done and would have pulled together, worked around the clock but it became a war. now we’re relitigating parts of those wars. dodd-frank and health care. it’s all being relitigated. on the issue of collaboration, he talked about what’s going on o in europe to try to stem the debt crisis. and he said, you know, the thing about europe is it has the will but not the way. we have the way. but not the will. we are going to keep monitoring it. in this discussion. we’ll bring you headlines and perhaps dip back into that discussion as news warrants.

Jamie Dimon Addresses Fiscal Cliff

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, says the economy would have been booming if the U.S. would have adopted Simpson-Bowles.

Transcript:

don’t higher, don’t build, don’t buy. let’s wait and see. let’s not do that with ourselves. it’ll be a slope going into december 30th. yeah. after that, probably. unless we concoct an anonymous deal rather because congress finds a way to kick the proverbial can down the road. how are you worried at some point if the united states can’t do something on the order of simpson/bowles $4 trillion over a comprehensive deal. how worried are you that one day you wake up and suddenly your blackberry or iphone is red hot because the bond markets essentially move against the united states? it’s virtually assured. it’s assured, the question is when and how. and so, you know, i can’t honestly tell you. i know it’s going to be two years or five years. it will happen. it is a matter of time. the united states can’t borrow indefinitely, and you’ve seen it, you don’t believe me, look at — over the 100 years, bankruptcy’s a country after country after country who just thought they could get away. so why would you take the choice of wait and see. so we are going to have fiscal discipline. it is imposed upon us or we do the right thing, do it to ourselves the right way. and the way, in fact, enhance growth and jobs. we did something like a simpson/bowles, i believe if they had been done a year ago, this economy would have been booming, booming. and not just — we’re just showing we have the ability. i would say america knows the way. we don’t have the will. europe has the will, doesn’t know the way. more efficient tax system, it would have created much more certainty among a whole bunch of policy things. i think we would have been booming. i think it’s doable, we need the leaders to say we are going to do it. when you think of the outlines of something on the lines, you say it has to include entitlement reform, something with tax increases. yeah, i think most business people are not partisan and not parochial. we can’t spend — we could all sit here and decide, we spend 20% of the government, i think simpson/bowles is 21% and obviously taxes, an efficient tax system. it’s a far more efficient tax system. so it gets the huge waste in churn, i call fixing costs in our society from a bad tax system, a polluted legal system, uncertainty around things. so, yeah, i think you would have had better growth. and i think it was 4 for 1 or whatever it was. but close enough would have been doesn’t have to be exa right. if it gets growth going again, remember, growth will pay for a lot once we have growth starting again. let’s talk about growth. the united states is — has been now for several years growing at roughly half, what you might call the modern historic rate of economic growth. instead of growing in the mid threes, growing in fiscal ’02, giver or take. if you were in a position to more broadly make the case publicly. here are the things we ought to do in order to generate double the rate of economic growth at 3.5%. one would be a comprehensive budget deal like you just mentioned. what else would be on jamie dimon’s list? let me give you the big picture about america, this great country of ours, okay. the president recognizes one ing for certain, they go in with a royal straight flush. i think the attitude how terrible that america’s lost, it’s not true, folks. we have the best military on the planet, we will for years, we have the widest, most transparent markets, in all this glory. as management investment, equity, the actual markets, the municipal bond markets, among the best businesses on the planet small, medium, and large. one of the most innovative entrepreneurial country around. i’m talking all up and down the factory line, steve jobs, you name it. we invest more in capital equipment. we have a good rule of law, it’s no longer the best because i think we have a slightly polluted court system at this point. we still have the product and rk ethic is still there. okay. this is still the time to invest. if you invest in one place, it would be here. we’ve got to get beyond that. now, we don’t have divine right to success. we have to get immigration right, fiscal policy. we were given another gift called shale oil. — i know you wasted all that energy, let’s give you one more shot. let’s hope you do this one right. we have a problem. we should diagnose the problem. and, you know, if you look at america today, the corporation is in great shape. markets in good shape, consumer’s not in bad shape and housing is turning. why are we going to 2%? and this one i can’t prove. and — but i believe it’s okay, but there’s that huge wet blanket out here and the wet blanket to me is, only the uncertainty around — or you could say real uncertainty around taxes, policies, fiscal cliff. we had the debt ceiling fiasco, this constant anti-business, not just sentiment, but regulatory, a.g.s, i tell all around america, wherever i go i ask business people, ho dough you — they all say it’s terrible. so it’s not just banks. we’ve done it to ourselves, folks. we’re shooting ourselves in the foot and doing it every day. get rid of that wet blanket and this thing will take off. and there was a great article written, someone reprinted in the wall street journal and i remember george schultz, gave present-elect ronald reagan some advice. it was consistent taxes, consistent regulatory, tell the sameive story over and over and over, and it will turn. and you’ve got to believe in it. so, you know, america usually will do the right thing after it’s exhausted all the possibilities, i hope we do.the important part to me also is in washington, okay. if you think the washington and business can go to war with each other is going to be good, terrible error. collaborations which should’ve happened. every business i know wanted to help get things done, you know, and would’ve pulled together, worked around the clock. but it became a war. and now we’re relit indicating parts of those wars. dodd/frank and health care. so we’re going to relitigate it. it’s another addition to the wet blanket and the benefit is get it right, get it right the first time and move on. but we didn’t. let’s transition to that. to the extent there has been a market absence in collaboration or significant friction between the worlds of politics and the worlds of business, you would put the lion share of the responsibility on the political side? i would put more in the political side than the business side. the brt, the business ceos, everyone i know is coming down saying what can we do to help? there were council, meeting, the brt wanted for the first time would surprise me when someone would ask a question, 120 ceos. do you want universal health care for american citizens. 80% said yes. they wanted it done right, a certain way, the way it was done. but, yeah, there was a huge — let’s pull together as americans and make this work whatever it took. and it didn’t happen. i don’t know, you know politics far better than io. but that didn’t happen. it still can happen, by the way, my attitude is, let’s do it again. let’s try again. we owe it to ourselves to do the best we ca one area that you clearly know better than i do is regulation and regulatory policy. so let me put that out there. you know, historically, one often talks of pendulum swings and i think there’s something of conventional wiz that pre2008 the pendulum swung too far in the direction of underregulation and the dangers obviously after twaig, at least one school of thought is it’s gone too far. another school of thought i’ll come to in a second. where do you come out on that? little knowledge and justify it with whatever they thought. regulation is a good thing. good doesn’t mean necessarily more or less. just means good. highways post 65 miles an hour. you can’t drink when you drive. those are good things done properly. in some of these areas we created such confusion, who knows who’s responsible for what. overlapping jurisdictions, no way to adjudicate disputes. you make mistakes, you’re attacked by 17 different agencies, in the old days it would be the one who is responsible for it. we need good policy, clarity, simplicity. people on the financial side say more, they mean more capital. fine, what’s the level of capital that makes se let’s have a debate an look at the facts. i’ve always supported a lot of capital, a lot of liquidity. i think at one point it is going to go too far. a lot of these laws are written in basel. they’re not written for america. they’re written for other people for other purposes. regulators say we have to have a common — do it right and make it fair for everybody. i agree with that concept — except it was bad for america. because if america doesn’t want to do it, the rest of the world can’t make us. when you look at some these rules, you say those don’t make sense for this country. what about the poster — we told you he was colorful and he did not disappoint. jpmorgan’s ceo jamie dimon down in washington at the council on foreign relations taking a number of questions addressing a number of topics today, including the economy, china, the fiscal cliff of course on the u.s. he says the united states is fundamentally stronger than people think. says china will meet its objectives of 7% to 8% growth on the fiscal clif, mr. dimon saying the economy would have been stronger had we adopted simpson-bowles. again jamie dimon down at the council on foreign relations.

Bear Deal Not Fair: Dimon

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says his company was doing the US government a favor when it obtained Bear Stearns. The fact that the government is now suing his company over Bear’s losses falls into what Dimon would call the “unfair category.”