JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calls for more federal stimulus spending
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday said congressional lawmakers and President Donald Trump need to enact another major economic stimulus package to keep the economy from slipping into recession again.
"A good, well-designed stimulus package will simply increase the chance we get better outcomes," Dimon said on Tuesday.
The chief executive of the nation's largest bank warned that the U.S. was still very much at risk of a double-dip recession, which he said would do significantly more damage to small businesses and unemployed Americans than the country has seen so far. And he predicted an additional $20 billion in loan losses for his bank alone if that happens.
"If you have a double-dip, there will be considerable pain and suffering," Dimon said.
Mr. Trump is backing a revised stimulus package, according to White House economics adviser Larry Kudlow. Kudlow didn't provide specifics about the relief plan, although he noted it would likely include stimulus checks as well as aid for the ailing airline industry.
"I don't want to walk through the details because [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi will be on the horn this afternoon" to negotiate the package, Kudlow said.
That's a reversal from Mr. Trump's position less than a week ago, when he pushed for a more limited series of separate measures: $1,200 stimulus checks for many Americans, some $25 billion in aid for airlines and $135 billion in fresh low-interest loans for small businesses. Yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is championing a broader $2.2 trillion package passed by Democrats in the lower chamber last week, last week scoffed at the president's idea of targeted relief.
"It's hard to see any clear, sane path in anything that he is doing," she said on "The View."
Dimon's call for more stimulus came on a conference call about his bank's quarterly earnings, which were up from a year ago. JPMorgan's profit rose to nearly $9.5 billion, or $2.92 a share, for the July to September period. That's up from a profit of $9.1 billion, or $2.68 per share, in the same period a year earlier. The results beat analysts' expectations for earnings of $2.23 a share, according to FactSet.
JPMorgan also set aside fewer funds to cover potentially bad loans, contributing to the improvement in its third-quarter results.
Some have worried on Wall Street about what will happen if November's presidential election has no clear outcome, and what that political and government uncertainty could do to the economy. On the conference call with reporters, Dimon said that wasn't something he was concerned about.
"I have great faith in this country and I'm sure we'll have a proper election," Dimon told reporters in response to a question about potential doubts over the election results.
The Associated Press and CBS MoneyWatch's Aimee Picchi contributed reporting to this story.
