JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon expressed frustration at the U.S. federal government during the company’s earnings conference call Friday.
“It’s almost embarrassment to be an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid s— we have to deal with in this country,” Dimon said in response to an analyst question.
“Since the Great Recession, which is now 8 years old, we’ve been growing at 1.5 to 2 percent in spite of stupidity and political gridlock, because the American business sector is powerful and strong,” he said. ‘What I’m saying is that it would be much stronger growth if there were more intelligent decisions and less gridlock.”
The executive of the U.S. banking giant cited travels to countries such as France, Argentina, Israel and Ireland. The U.S. has become “one of the most bureaucratic, confusing, litigious societies on the planet” and “it’s hurting the average American that we don’t have these right policies,” he said.
JPMorgan Chase reported earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates Friday. However, the bank lowered its forecast for lending revenue.
Shares traded 1.8 percent lower Friday morning.
Despite the Republican majority in Congress, Washington has been caught in gridlock over a new health care bill, which is seen as a precursor to passing new legislation on tax reform. The Senate this week cut short its August recess by two weeks in order to deal with the debate.
Here’s the full rant, according to the FactSet transcript of the call:
Since the Great Recession which is now eight years old we’ve been growing at 1.5 to 2% despite the stupidity and political gridlock. Because the American business sector is powerful and strong and is going to grow regardless of they went to feed their kids and want to buy home they want to do things the same as American businesses what I’m saying is it would be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and that gridlock, and thank you for pointing it out because I’m going to be a broken record until this gets done, we are unable to build bridges, unable to build airports, not graduating.
I was just in France, in Argentina, Israel, Ireland we met with the Prime Minister of India and China it’s amazing to me that every single one of those countries understands that practical policies to promote business growth is good for the average citizens of those countries for jobs and wages and somehow this great American free enterprise system we no longer get it.
My view is corporate taxation is critical to that by the way regarding capital brings overseas, which is why the $2 trillion overseas benefiting all these other countries don’t like that, so if we don’t get our act together we can still grow. It’s just unfortunate but it’s hurting us, it’s hurting the body politic, it’s hurting the average American that we don’t have these right policies. So no in spite of gridlock we will grow at 1 ½ or 2%.
I don’t buy the argument that we are relegated to this effort. We are not this administration can make breakthroughs in taxes and infrastructure ready for reform we have become one of the most bureaucratic confusing litigious societies on the planet it’s almost an embarrassment be an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid s— we have to deal with in this country and at one point we have to get our act together. We won’t do what were supposed to for the average Americans and unfortunately people write about this like corporations is not corporations competitive taxes are important for business and business growth which is important to jobs in wage growth and we should be making that along to every single one of you every time you talk to a client.
SOURCE: Evelyn Cheng
CNBC
BCNN1 WP 