It’s clear that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates to combat inflation. According to last week’s Consumer Price Index, the annual inflation rate hit 8.3 percent.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and other Wall Street CEOs testified before Congress on Thursday. Dimon has another way to combat inflation; maybe they should listen to a successful CEO instead of career politicians.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told the panelists:
“I don’t want to brag about the expensive places I’ve been, but the night before last I went to the grocery store. Inflation is gutting the American people like a fish.”
He asked the Wall Street CEOs:
“Now we know what our Federal Reserve is doing on the monetary side, but I want to ask you what you think we should do–we meaning the federal government–[should do] on the fiscal side?”
Dimon responded:
“I think a little less fiscal spending would be good,” Dimon responded, noting that the U.S. had spent 30% of GDP over the last two years–a move he called “literally unprecedented.”
Yet all we hear from the Biden administration is that the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which will cost billions of dollars, will lower inflation.
Kennedy continued, asking Dimon if the government needs to get “off the back of the American people in terms of regulation,” and Dimon agreed, saying:
“That would be helpful, I think, particularly for small businesses. I don’t want to sit here and complain about big companies, but I urge everyone to take 10 small businesses out to lunch and ask them what it was like to live through federal, state, and local regulations–even if they have one store. And that could help a lot.”
Dimon noted that the federal government should be considering taking actions to improve the supply side: taxation, regulation, immigration, infrastructure, and health care. He concluded by saying, “if you did some of those things, you will help grow the economy through its inflation.”
Per Fortune, Dimon said:
Rather than pure tax cuts, Dimon noted that taxation should be calibrated to create more growth.
Dimon also apologized to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). During the Senate hearing, Warren asked Dimon:
“You didn’t provide any of the information that we requested,” she told Dimon in the Senate hearing. “Is that because you don’t keep track of when your customers report fraudulent Zelle transactions? Or is it because you do keep track and you know exactly how many fraudulent transactions had been reported and you want to keep that a secret?”
Per CNN Business:
“I deeply apologize if we didn’t give you the numbers you asked for,” Dimon said in response. The amount of fraud for the service, he said, is “relatively small.” When Warren pressed for specific numbers, Dimon promised to get them to her by the end of the day.
“Terrific,” Warren said. “We’ll get it by the end of the day once nobody’s here to talk about it.”
The key takeaway from the hearing is that the government should listen to Dimon and other successful CEOs because clearly, what they have been trying for two years has not worked.
Dimon also had this exchange with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI):