"We're terrible at building infrastructure": JPMorgan's Dimon says bad US policies have handcuffed an economic recovery
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told Business Insider in an interview that bad policies held the US economy to 20% growth over the last nine years, whereas past recoveries suggest it should have been double that.
- Dimon cited an uncompetitive tax system, inability to build infrastructure, and the crippling bureaucracy and paperwork needed for things such as starting a business.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon isn't shy about apportioning blame for a worse-than-possible economic recovery, saying it would have been twice as strong but for a collection of bad policies.
"It was nine years, 20% growth; it should have been nine years, 40% growth," Dimon said in a late July interview with Business Insider. "What hampered us was our own bad policies. Uncompetitive tax system, we're terrible at building infrastructure now, the crippling bureaucracy and paperwork and sinecure to get things done. We still have the best nation on the planet, but we still have a bunch of things to fix."
It's not the first time Dimon has spoken out about policymaking mistakes. The CEO has earned a reputation for speaking his mind in sometimes blunt language. Dimon has been optimistic that the Trump administration may be able to fix some of the bad policies, and cited last year's passage of tax reform. In April, Dimon addressed the topic of bureaucracy in his annual letter, writing that it's "a disease" that "drives out good people, slows down decision making, kills innovation and is often the petri dish of bad politics." Later that month, he wrote an op-ed that railed against the unequal distribution of wealth in the US.
Dimon sat on one of President Trump's business advisory councils before they were disbanded in the wake of the president's comments about the protest in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.
Dimon spoke to Business Insider in July from San Diego, where the CEO was in the midst of an annual bus tour driving around the US to visit branch employees, customers and local officials. He spoke after surprising a small business owner who had walked into the Chase for Business Bizmobile, a sort of pop up branch, looking for solutions to potential business challenges.In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon also spoke about the importance of trade, the imperative to come up with workable immigration policy and border security, and the need for businesses and governments to collaborate. Watch BI's interview with Dimon here.