A Conversation with Jamie Dimon

[Applause] hello everyone and thank you mr. diamond is it my imagination are you absolutely everywhere these days when you could be businesses good businesses booming you could be just the steward of that growth basking in the accolades and you are waiting right in visibly and vocally into public policy hmm why welcome to here thank you very much to have me here I think I will is referring to that and my Chairman's letter this year I wrote about public policy I think public policy is probably the most important things we get wrong these days I went through that list of things that America has going for which is extraordinary its best ever out of respect for other countries but we have all the food war in energy peaceful and wonderful neighbors in Canada and Mexico best military low corruption great rule of law why Steve is capital markets best universities some of the most innovative businesses are unbelievable can do work ethic but and you've got to hold these two thoughts in the head they're both true we have some serious issues you know we've had stagnant growth stagnant middle-class incomes you know low wages haven't been keeping up with a living wage we've had obviously unsettled people the job and I went to olicity to the job participation rate forget the overall one just take twenty five to fifty five-year-old men it's gone from ninety six percent to eighty six percent lowest of any developed nation we have 20 million felons most of which is terrible they can't get a job afterwards 35,000 people die in opioids so I think there is a legitimate anger in the country but my own personal view and the bottom line cause it's not secular stagnation it's not because it had to be that way it's not because it had to be the aftermath of financial crisis it's not because of some mystery thing taking place with monetary policy it's stupidity it's bad public policy okay you we haven't built a major airport the United States since Denver 20 years ago China built 75 in the last ten years it takes ten years to get the average permits for a for a bridge or inner-city schools are failing to graduate half the kids and those who graduate aren't prepared for jobs 70% of kids between 17 and 24 cannot get into the United States military because they can't read right or they're obese or diabetes 70% okay so you know that's understandable why people are kind of pissed off in this country and my point that why you're so vocal right now you're kind of pissed off yeah because I'm a patriot I love my country and I think we got to start doing something about it and it is nothing to do with Democrats Republicans I think the knee-jerk reaction we have between Democrats revoke causes the problem we need facts and analysis competent people can do get it done fix it and in a non propio way like we got to make it work for everybody not just a handful of people and do we need our business leaders to be more vocal and more active in the public policy arena yeah so here yeah I do believe that you know hey I have cut something a comma those who blame the leaders of this country and the elite which includes most of people in this room where I just talked about is us so collectively we are to blame collectively the leader should have done something and so and I think business business with government civil society have to do it together it can't be done by one without the other it is impossible to real jobs real educate is going to take place at the local level with these businesses machine tooling or engineering or plumbing or building constructor jobs etc and so we got to get our schools right we got to get these things right but it's not going to just take one the other it's not about money it's about policy before we get into Jamie diamonds the policy approach for the next hundred days to tell me a little bit about so we've got your shareholder letter right for the first time you had twenty some odd pages on the issue of public policy you are participating with other business leaders in this administration you're on Trump's business strategic business advisory council are you finding this White House in this administration receptive to candid dialogue and and yesterday I woke up and I said you were everywhere because it seems like you have been yesterday woke up I was actually doing that really retro thing of turning the pages in reading a newspaper you know the thing that you turn and there you were on the front page New York Times report in the business council meeting the president says so you think China's manipulating currency don't you and you said no they're not work they are the manipulated up not down and yeah so I answer is yes he he is listening and I think you know before when he was elected I'm not even sure he really expected people affected in that particular day and I was not a trump supporter but they asked me to serve in this I was criticized by a lot of people including one of my daughters but you better be voting for the pilot of the airplane and and I'm a patriot I'm going to try the best I can't help the contras asked to do it and I think could make a difference and I think I'm comfort I think you should be comforting the fact you know what's the first thing he did he put top people on the ground okay and general mattis general Kelly general McMaster deeply respected by everyone that I know and then you have Steve minuchin Wilbur Ross a Gary Cohn and others deeply knowledgeable respected and I personally think this this kind of concept that's grown up over time that if you are successful and experienced you shouldn't serve in Washington and I just disagree I think these folks want to do the job they want to fix it they're not all experienced in Washington which I'm not either but so I'm comforted by that and you see policy changes you've seen most of people's broken the president so I saw it myself but would say they won't give and take they want strong people with good ideas and they want to try to get these things done you and I know it's hard to get these things done but that's what they want to do so what should be front and center on the agenda well it's other things like you know he someone said how do you bridge the gap between how he ran you know for you know working-class ye rural etc and you know he's seen a lot of CEOs etc and the way I was told by someone in the White House was jobs he sees that the most important thing is to create jobs and growth and I think they are right I think we can grow 3% I think the agenda is spot on right corporate taxes again this is us we've been driving brains and capital overseas for ten years we knew what was happening we all advised administration's before if some of the damage permanent because they bought companies or build plants overseas or move research centers overseas so corporate tax reform and I heard secretary Minuten say it on TV or maybe Wilbur said it today it's been shown in the corporate tax reform that both enhances growth and it actually increases wages infrastructure spot-on I already spoke about a little bit regulatory reform not just financial but just broadly let's take it just a deep breath that no one's going to go back to the bed all days no one's going to go back to like deep pollution but some of these rules and regulations with them honestly they're sickening they're stupid the good old can-do American get it right change something modify something that's almost gone and so I think it's absolutely right to get out of the way you know you go this is anecdotal but you know it takes a year and three licenses become a barber in New York City have small business formation in this recovery is the lowest it's ever been in a recovery okay and it's generally because the two things hard to prove this but I think is two things inability access to capital mostly startups because I think existing businesses that's not quite the issue and the second is just the constant compliance regulation it's just crippling in some of these businesses if you don't believe me ask them I tend to travel a lot and see a lot of small businesses and they'll tell you is the number one problem so which regulations would you start with well I think they're doing it right which is cost-benefit to out one in and I don't want to spend a lot of time in the financial side but they take to take mortgages so here you may not know is George McGovern ran for president most liberal man who ever ran for president lost in a landslide went to run a small Inn in Vermont or something and wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal about ten years after that and said a legislators dream is a business man's nightmare and it went through that all the stuff he does the legislative past the name of good made it impossible for him to run that in OSHA reporting requirements rules environmental local files federal files state filing and he had to the be same and by not everywhere brakes ankle on the sidewalk outside the thing was my fault but the litigation is also crippling these small businesses so I would start by reduced some of those regulations mortgage side we have not reformed mortgages yet we did an analysis and this is one example and this has hurt average Americans and the very people that most of my Democratic friends profess to want to help because we haven't finished mortgage securitization mortgage rules there are 3,000 servicing requirements the cost of mortgage is higher because the cost of litigation is so high a lot of companies that make mortgages are unwilling to make mortgages within any extra risk think of lower FICO younger immigrant self employed prior default okay we estimate that that would have been almost 500 billion dollars or more of mortgages to those people okay a third of those mortgage probably with new households on new homes I mean okay and that would have added point three to 0.4 percent to GDP a year a year for five years have we made a change five years ago that were the millions of jobs household building would be way back up because one thing and yet then it takes seven regulators I'm not blaming each of the regulars but the way we set the system is take seven regulators don't do that they haven't done it yet and they can do it in a week it could be done almost in a week and so I just think if they don't do it they're hurting young people immigrants household formation not me they're not hurting JPMorgan Chase or Jamie Dimon they're hurting our citizens by not dealing with these issues so the one change you'd like to see if you had this was your hundred days and you were going to put that forward with unregulated as I won't go through a lot of stuff that we got to relook at with didn't banks but but it would be small business regulations they are the president I think showed a chart like it's a foot high of rules they have to get approved to get one infrastructure project done now I don't know what how you change that but I'm sure it could be changed if you have the good old can-do American attitude so talk about what you've seen in this outline of an outline of a tax plan pro-growth or pro well I first of all we should do the right thing for America and not do the wrong thing because maybe I think it can help someone as wealthy so I think the most important thing is corporate tax rates need to come down okay and that will drive a lot of things you know interest will eventually go away I think the president's right about that I don't care if they change the top racket and someone like me it doesn't interest me at all and I think I think that businesses support something like on the other side the Earned Income Tax Credit if you're a single woman with children and you make it seven dollars an hour a little over $14,000 a year the government give you tax credit of 6,000 the end of the year at that program cost like sixty billion it 27 million people get it looked at 9 million people out of poverty I think we should double or triple the program and include single men anyone who's not earning a living wage to lift people up to living wage jobs bring dignity that first rung in the ladder often leads to a second rung people who start working continue working people of a job have household formation they get married we have a lot of social problems it'd be a great attack on that it would be sharing the wealth of the country with those people who who need a living wage and I think so I'm not talk about just corporate tax reform I do that too about it Paul Ryan wants that the Democrats want that so I think there are things we can do that for infrastructure earned income tax credits while we cut corporate taxes that can help a lot of Americans even you've been vocal that business should be involved in advocating for public policy but they should move from beyond their parochial interests and you've called yourself a patriot so give us some examples of what that would look like for a business instead of lobbying for their self-interest so I'll just you know I give you an example which is I became the chairman the Business Roundtable which is an advocacy group and Israel tax and trade and immigration and and all these other things I told it it's 200 large company CEOs I told them I'm not going to talk at all about Bank reform here because that's parochial we should be talking about things that's good for all of America and CEOs most CEOs are pretty patriotic let me give you an example how many of you were from New York to California you should give them more that deduction okay it's wrong that the United States government is financing profligate states like California and New York it's been it's been wrong for years it's a trillion dollars or pay for other things it should be phased in over time you know the Secretary of Treasury said today you're going to get a tie if they cut the top rate you get some of that back it's wrong I hear people in New York say well you know we're just making up the fact that we send so much more money to the federal government than we get back that's because New York is very rich as is California that was meant to be that way it shouldn't be made up with these tax reform so as CEOs it's it's kind of yeah like if you say committed we have some tax credits I get rid of all of them for 20 percent tax rate guy do all of them you know in size just Irish pea let's stop being so damn parochial and figure out what makes sense for the country and suck it up and do it and you know and we need to do it because we really gotten bogged down in this stuff and again it's us we collectively have caused it and we collectively you're going to have to fix it or we were sitting here in ten years figure out what went wrong with this great country of ours you have a reputation for being able to sniff out danger you have a radar where you can see trouble and I should you coming right now okay okay and you've been able to hear your company through some pretty perilous waters so if you're if you got that radar trained on our future what are you seeing that's concerning you most so I'm not going to go through geopolitics because you all read it it's scary and it usually doesn't have that effect and it's always so it's kind of like cosmic pot cosmological constant and often would come to get you isn't what you see even in major risk you can stick about your one it's usually something you didn't see I would say there's a bullet coming up my head somewhere it's just I just not in front of me and therefore the protection for those things is well-run companies capital liquidity a lot of stuff that dodd-frank did do by the way so I edit the real issue I worry about is this bad public policy I think if we don't fix it as it's leading to terrible a bit but and the body politic terrible debate but leaving a lot of people behind you see which taking place around the world has similar issues and it creates meanness when it comes to immigration and mean is when it comes to a bunch of other things so I do think the public policy thing is what it has been most worried about the future not this thing you're about technology technology the best thing ever happen to mankind I mean you all be living in tent and hunting Buffalo and dying at 35 work but for technology okay your kids are going to live to a hundred okay you know most people man claims work seven days a week and six days a week and now in America we're down to five probably four and a half and Europe dirty down to three generally you know it's good main kind of little just they'll find other things to do as robots take place if it goes too fast then we can apologies they can make up for it so so it's bad public policy bad reactions to things where people being left behind who have a legitimate complaint I think they're legitimate complaints you know about what we didn't do to help the problems of these folks loss of opportunity as Jim said before it's a terrible thing you know and then those inner-city school kids it might be a Colin Powell a Barack Obama okay Albert Einstein you know and what you'll never know because we didn't give the opportunity that most of us did have and I think we need to do that and that caused a little bit money we should go do it anyway and worried about bad public policy and based on what you've seen in that admittedly very early days of this administration what public policy twists in terms are you most concerned about look I think you know you had this kind of change of administration pro-business for these policies now you're going to see the sources get made so it's going to be great for the press this could be awful to be down as big as you have to all the pluses all the minds New York Times is going to say it's just for the rich this was good that's what it is that's called democracy it can be twelve months of this give-and-take ugly stuff but I'm hoping it could be bridged between a I T C infrastructure with the Democrats one with some of the Republicans one and that we do the right things so did you tell me what you were most worried about the sausage-making if that's what I don't know is you know it's just bad public policy I mean you know if you know that's what worried me a brags it wasn't that brags it itself is that what it means for like so even the European Union if so it leaves the monitor you not Greece by the way but Italy or France that's that's a real problem folks that's not a minor problem I'm not predicting it's going to happen though you know if you were my board of directors why always tell my board is we have to be prepared for it whether or not it's going to happen I'm not I'm not betting on oh no don't worry about this no I have to bet on so we have to prepare for bed events and spiders that radar thing again yeah well it's a way of thinking okay so we're a big bank in China I prepare for the worst I don't expect it to happen I think large developed nation 30-years housing forty percent of the global fortune 3000 but does a small chance that doesn't happen that way they've kicked out all foreigners twice in the history in the 1300s and now they might do it again so if you if you're a shareholder of JPMorgan Chase I just want to tell you we'll be fine it'll hurt it will be a good year but we'll make money okay and that's how we run the company that you're the probabilities and we want to be I'll handle all said of them because otherwise that you're you take it too much risk given given how passionate you clearly are about the public policy arena given how engaged you are would you consider civil service would you consider serving your country are you not to do that not this way um not my wife either um I don't it's too late for me okay I don't want to be a mayor senator governor most these people in politics somewhat for good reason but doing it their whole lives President Trump is the first president who didn't serve in the military or hadn't had a fully extensive political career and I just think it's hard to do and you got to you got to start early your president I always say let's be brock obama was running for president they graduated college but this prat he wrote two books about himself before he did anything but jamie digital and jamie this president has clearly you may say that there is a new way and you are not too old that may be true but i just cuz he did it doesn't mean it opened the door for someone else to do it and i just don't think it's my cup of tea or my specialty i think i did best I could do for my country to do what I'm doing right now and that's it okay last question I know something that you and I were talking about earlier that that you are probably the progress you made not quite talking about succession planning it at JPMorgan but 30 percent of your top 200 employees are women that's correct and 30 percent of your direct reports or indirect so what are the chant on LGBT 20 percent yeah how did you do that I look I think the door to diversity is trust and respect and openness and everyone knows that everyone can be treated equally and fairly you can have special programs but and our our women they do their unbelievable and they do they have the phone called women on the move and women here and they always some if I had a program for just for men I probably kicked it at my job but but they are smart the dynamic they're leading the charge themselves and and I think they feel treated very equal in the company and then lots of little things to do like this goes out years ago like you know I'm pay and promotion committees make sure the staff with women too so the other women feel it was there and they have something go talk to her they said this wasn't fair and so there are a million things you can do all over wine they've done reports and you won't have 30 percent in the executive suites and Wall Street for I think was 30 years but we already do I've been trying to get the press to write that I called them up I offered it they think of no interest but everybody's something like that so what are the odds that the next CEO will be a woman 30 percent or greater III think it's got a pretty good odds I mean I the goods that JP more is tracked stocked with talent okay and so it depends when I leave when I get hit by that proverbial truck which isn't my preference but it'll that will depend at the time I think there are several people in the company who can succeed me okay and I think there are several women in the company or who are are or will be on that list okay we haven't ruled out a run for office or greater visibility for you so we're gonna we're gonna leave that open we'll get a woman in the CEO job men will be done will be great jamie dimon thank you hello thank you [Applause]

Channel: Milken Institute

Views: 21,656

Rating: 4.6685081 out of 5

Keywords: MIGlobal, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase, Milken Institute

Id: Fy4QHN1eBAw

Length: 21min 35sec (1295 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2017