jamie dimon: "democracy is a compromise, not a dictatorship"

JAMIE DIMON: "DEMOCRACY IS A COMPROMISE, NOT A DICTATORSHIP"
t would be interesting to go into the mind of James “Jamie”
Dimon, Chairman, President and CEO of J. P. Morgan Chase,
said to be the healthiest of the nine largest US banks. He
previously served on the Board of Directors of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, and was on TIME Magazine’s 2006,
2008, 2009 and 2011 list of the World’s 100 Most Influential
People. He was named Institutional Investor’s Best CEO in
the All-America Executive Team Survey from 2008 through 2011,
and CEO of the Year in 2011, receiving a US$23 million pay
package for fiscal year 2011, more than any other bank CEO
in the US. He also received compensation of US$20 million
for his work in fiscal year 2013.
In March 2000, Dimon became CEO of Bank One, the nation's
fifth largest bank. When J. P. Morgan Chase purchased Bank
One in July 2004, Dimon became President and COO of the
combined company. On December 31, 2005, he was named
CEO of J. P. Morgan Chase and on December 31, 2006, he was
named Chairman of the Board. In March 2008 he was a Class
A Board Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Under Dimon's leadership, with the acquisitions during his
tenure, J. P. Morgan Chase has become the leading US bank
in domestic assets under management, market capitalization
value, and publicly traded stock value.
J. P. Morgan Chase is also the No. 1 credit card provider in the
US. In October 2013, it was reported that Dimon had given up
his role as chairman of J. P. Morgan's main banking business to
be succeeded by former Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive
William Weldon. Dimon retained his roles as Chairman and
CEO of the parent company. On January 24, 2014 it was
announced that Dimon would receive $20 million for his work
in 2013, a year of record profits and stock price under his
reign, despite significant losses that year due to scandals and
payments of fines.
The award was a 74% raise, which included over $18 million in
restricted stock. Forbes reported that, in a statement following
news of Dimon’s compensation, the bank said, “Under Mr
Dimon’s stewardship, the Company has fortified its control
infrastructure and processes and strengthened each of its
key businesses while continuing to focus on strengthening
its leadership capabilities across all levels.”
As head of J. P. Morgan Chase, Dimon oversaw the transfer of
$25 billion in funds from the US Treasury Department to the
bank on October 28, 2008, under the Troubled Asset Relief
Program (TARP). This was the fifth largest amount transferred
under Section A of TARP to help troubled assets related to
residential mortgages. It has been widely reported that J. P.
Morgan Chase was in much better financial shape than other
banks and did not need TARP funds but accepted the funds
because the government did not want to single out only the
banks with capital issues. In order to encourage smaller banks
with troubled assets to accept this money, Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson allegedly coerced the CEOs of the nine largest
banks to accept TARP money under short notice.
Dimon donates primarily to the Democratic Party. In
May 2012, he described himself as "barely a Democrat"
stating, “I've gotten disturbed at some of the Democrats'
anti-business behavior, the attacks on work ethic and
successful people. I think it's very counterproductive. ... It
doesn't mean I don't have their values. I want jobs. I want a
more equitable society. I don't mind paying higher taxes. ... I
do think we're our brother's keeper but I think that attacking
that which creates all things, is not the right way to go about
it.”
Following the acquisition of Washington Mutual by J. P.
Morgan Chase, Obama commented on Dimon's handling of
the real-estate crash, credit crisis, and the banking collapse
affecting corporations nationwide, including major financial
institutions like Bank of America, Citibank and Wachovia
(now Wells Fargo), “You know, keep in mind, though there
are a lot of banks that are actually pretty well managed, J. P.
Morgan being a good example, Jamie Dimon, the CEO there,
I don't think should be punished for doing a pretty good job
managing an enormous portfolio.”
"We could help." So we sent a team of people to see what J. P.
Morgan could do to accelerate the survival and hopefully the
thriving of Detroit.
CT: Are you doing this for PR because people are so mad
at the banks? Or you're doing this because it's good for the
bottom line?
JD: We're doing it because it's good for the bottom line, and
because we're here. I love America. I want America to do great.
So when we see problems, we try to help.
CT: Let me borrow a phrase that we're hearing a lot. 'China is
killing us.' Is China killing America?
JD: No, absolutely not. They had a bump in the road,
just a speed bump that showed you the transition
from where they are, to where they're going. They're
very smart, they're very educated. But they have to
move to real market reform and let the market make
certain decisions.
CT: Should we be concerned as Americans that they
hold so much of our debt?
JD: To the extent that they're a peaceful neighbor with
the rest of the world, we should try to help them. They
own about a trillion and a half U.S. dollars of our debt.
Our economy's worth $100 trillion. So, no.
CT: So this is an unfounded fear?
JD: It's absolutely unfounded.
In 1983, Dimon married Judith Kent, whom he met at Harvard
Business School. They have three daughters: Julia, Laura,
and Kara Leigh. Dimon was diagnosed with throat cancer
in 2014. He received eight weeks of radiation and
chemotherapy ending in September 2014. The following
is a transcript of a “Meet the Press” NBC Programme
conducted on 20 September 2015 by Chuck Todd:
Chuck Todd (CT):
It's not easy being the face of Wall Street, the top .0001% of
the country, when both political parties see you as the symbol
of America's growing income inequality. But that comes with
the territory of being the top man at America's largest bank,
J. P. Morgan Chase. But some of Jamie Dimon's views might
surprise you. I caught up with Dimon this week in Detroit,
a city his company is investing a lot of money in, to rebuild,
and I asked him why his bank is spending so much money in
Detroit.
Jamie Dimon (JD):
J. P. Morgan has a history in Detroit. We saw a Republican
governor and a Democrat mayor, Mayor Duggan, talking in a
way we thought was right. It wasn't about ideology, but what
Detroit needed. They need the streetlights on, better police,
sanitation, better schools, better businesses. You can't do this
one at a time, you have to make the whole thing work. We
saw them being practical, not ideological or partisan. We said,
CT: There’s usually a faster acceleration in economic growth,
coming out of a recession. Why are we not seeing that here?
JD: I give President Bush, President Obama, Hank Paulson, Tim
Geithner, Ben Bernanke enormous credit for stopping it from
getting worse. And I think if they had not taken a lot of those
actions it likely would have got worse. They didn't want to
take the risk, nor do I think they should have. I think that
since then, we've had a series of things which just slowed
things down: for example, the debt ceiling crisis, government
shutdowns, gridlock on taxes, budgets we didn't finish,
immigration policy – those things are not good for America.
I think, had we done all those things including a detailed
immigration plan which is moral, right and good for the
country, we'd be growing a lot faster.
CT: So you're blaming Washington, basically saying the
economy would be at 3.5%-4% growth without Washington
gridlock?
JD: I'm not blaming Washington because we elected those
people.
CT: Do you blame us?
JD: Blame all of us. If we want people in Washington to
collaborate, let's elect people who will collaborate.
CT: We might be on the verge of another government
shutdown. What do you say to conservatives in the House that
are thinking about doing this?
JD: I think that people compromise over their family, friends,
even what they eat for dinner. A democracy is a compromise
by nature. It's not a dictatorship. So anyone who says, "My
way or the highway” on one issue isn't necessarily thinking
about the United States of America. I wish people could just
overcome that kind of stuff. A government shutdown is just
bad management.
CT: Viewers will say, "You know what, those fat cat Wall Street
bankers, they worry about their compensation. He's paid too
much."
JD: I completely understand because things haven't got better
for a large group of people. On compensation, there are two
things: if you took all the compensation of all the CEOs of the
top 500 companies in America it wouldn't make a dent in this
problem. You're going to have free competition. You will see
it in sports, in Silicon Valley, in engineers. You will see a free
market. You want that. That's companies; people who have
capital, sharing their wealth. But to get the wage going you
have to understand what makes wages grow. At the end of
the day, it's economic growth.
CT: Do you pay enough in taxes? Do you think your taxes
should go up?
JD: I pay about 50% of adjusted income and I get 40%
deductions for charitable contributions etc. But if you said
to me, "Would you pay 10% more?" I'd say, "Yeah, I'd have no
personal problem doing that at all." I understand that I should
be paying more than my assistant pays. What the American
public doesn't feel is that money that goes to Washington is
being properly used. So if you're raising taxes, make sure it is
productively used and people know it is properly done.
CT: On the campaign trail, whether it's Hillary Clinton, Bernie
Sanders or Jeb Bush and Donald Trump – all of them want to
stick it to Wall Street in some of their tax plans, and show the
American public that they're going to stand up to Wall Street.
Do you understand why they're running against you?
JD: We had a crisis; a lot of people got hurt. The average
American looks at what happened and they blame Wall Street;
I would too – a lot of us were part of that problem. I would
tell the American public it wasn't all banks; not all banks failed.
A lot of banks got it from us including Illinois, California, New
Jersey, city schools, state hospitals, companies, you name it.
We were there in the bad times. But banks did bad things, and
people generically blame them. I think it's a good sign when
people admit they made a mistake. We were part of making
mistakes. We also did a lot of great stuff.
CT: You were a big supporter of the Clintons over the years.
Will you support Hillary Clinton again?
JD: I am not going to get involved in politics at this point.
CT: Why is that?
JD: You guys are doing a perfectly good job laying all these
issues out.
CT: But you did get involved in politics. You were a big donor
and you raised money for her last time. Why not this time?
JD: I don't know. I might. But I haven't decided what I'm going
to do yet.