Jamie Dimon warns conflict in the Middle East could trigger the most serious global crisis since World War II

• Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have pushed the world to the brink of a grave crisis, Jamie Dimon said.
• "Geopolitical matters are very serious – arguably the most serious since 1938," he told the Sunday Times.

Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East risk triggering the most serious global crisis since the Second World War, Jamie Dimon has warned.

The JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO said in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times that Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war with Hamas had made the world more "scary and unpredictable".

"Here in the US, we continue to have a strong economy," he told the outlet, likely referring to the country's surging GDP growth and resilient jobs market. "We still have a lot of fiscal and monetary stimulus in the system."

"But these geopolitical matters are very serious – arguably the most serious since 1938," Dimon added, referring to the year Nazi Germany annexed parts of Czechoslovakia and stepped up its persecution of Jewish people.

Financial markets have largely shrugged off the conflict in the Middle East, one month after Hamas' strike on Israel.

The S&P 500 gauge of US stocks has climbed 1% since October 7, with investors cheered by the idea that the Federal Reserve probably won't raise interest rates again. The MSCI World Index, which tracks global equities, is also up around 1% over the same period.

Meanwhile, Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil prices briefly flared up after the Hamas attack on the fear that major producer Iran could become embroiled in a broader conflict, but the two benchmarks have since slid back to pre-war levels.

Dimon, who heads up the US's largest bank, said it would be futile to worry about markets when the world is on the brink of such a grave crisis.

"What's happening... right now is the most important thing for the future of the world — freedom, democracy, food, energy, immigration," he told the Sunday Times. "We diminish that importance when you say, 'What's it going to do to the market?'"

"Markets will be fine. Markets can deal with stuff. Markets go up and down. Markets fluctuate," Dimon added.

This isn't the first time the JPMorgan boss has warned the conflict in the Middle East is a threat to the world economy.

"This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades," he said in a press release after the bank reported its quarterly earnings last month, pointing to rising geopolitical friction, the Fed's tightening campaign, and the US government's mountain of debt.