Nearly a decade after the global financial crisis, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has emerged as one of the most sought after voices on banking and the global economy. In 2017, Dimon will be busy, counseling President Trump both as an advisor on issues about the economy and business policy and as Chairman of the Business Roundtable.
Dimon sat down with Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Meghan Murphy in Detroit, Michigan to talk about politics, policy and the global economy.
Among the topics discussed during Dimon’s interview included:
- The Rise of Global Populism: Dimon stated he thinks that the core of the matter is the fear that America’s changing too much and there is a frustration and an anger due to the fact middle class incomes have not grown for 15 years and the difference between unskilled and skilled incomes has been growing over time, and that unskilled workers have a hard time getting a living wage.
- Boosting Jobs and Economic Growth: Solutions Dimon mentions include training, work skills initiatives, expanding earned income tax credit, fixing corporate taxes, immigration and trade that, if done properly, will result in faster economic growth in America and can fix our job problems.
- Advising Trump on Initiatives: Dimon says we need corporate tax reform to keep from driving capital overseas. Our tax rate is so much higher than the rest of the world, and because of that companies are leaving their money overseas, reinvesting it overseas, buying companies overseas, and some of that is permanent and is not coming back.
- Education & Job Training: Dimon says one of the greatest disgraces in this country is the fact that 50% of the kids don’t graduate high school and those who do aren’t necessarily job ready. Dimon argues that getting kids vocational training at the high school level that leads to a job is what we should be doing. Dimon says this would not be a government program, but has to be done on a local level working with local businesses.
- Technology & Disruption: Dimon says while technology is scary and disruptive, it has made mankind’s life better, and we’ve done a bad job of addressing the disruptive quality of it. One of the problems we need to address, Dimon says, is dealing with people losing good paying jobs to technology or trade and getting them reskilled and retrained.
- Globalization & Trade: Dimon says he would be in favor of proper trade, fair trade, that helps America make money. He also says we need to broaden the concept of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, which is part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership bill, that allows trade-affected workers get relocation, redevelopment, retraining, income assistance.
You can watch Dimon’s full interview below:
