Jamie Dimon says income inequality is a ‘huge problem’ but don’t ‘vilify people’
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told “60 Minutes” on Sunday that income inequality is a “huge problem” but evaded a question about his $31 million salary and warned that his high-profile critics “shouldn’t vilify people who worked hard.”
“The notion that I’m not a patriot or that some of these other folks aren’t, that’s just dead wrong,” he said, in response to a question from host Lesley Stahl about criticism leveled by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“I think you should vilify Nazis, but you shouldn’t vilify people who worked hard to accomplish things,” added Dimon, whose net worth is $1.6 billion.
Asked about his 2018 salary in the tens of millions, Dimon says, “The board sets mine. I have nothing to do with it.”
‘More widely shared prosperity’
An ongoing, public dispute about wealth inequality between Warren, a presidential candidate, and a number of billionaires has thrust Dimon’s comments into the center of a roiling political debate.
Last Wednesday, Bill Gates told The New York Times that he’d be willing to pay more in taxes but joked he would get wary if asked to pay $100 billion and questioned how “open-minded” Warren is. After a cordial Twitter exchange between Gates and Warren, she released an online calculator that shows how much billionaires would pay in taxes under her plan.
In 2015, Dimon acknowledged the significance of wealth inequality but questioned whether the quality of life for everyday Americans had declined because of it.
“It’s not right to say we’re worse off,” Dimon said, according to Bloomberg. “If you go back 20 years ago, cars were worse, health was worse, you didn’t live as long, the air was worse. People didn’t have iPhones.”
Dimon wrote an op-ed in The New York Times the following year that heralded the bank’s pay and investment initiatives as efforts to “advance economic opportunity and create more widely shared prosperity.”
In June, Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer asked Dimon about the economic message of progressive candidates like Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
“Just because it resonates, doesn’t make it right,” Dimon said.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill in April, Ocasio-Cortez sat alongside lawmakers who targeted the tens of millions in compensation received by top bank executives, including Dimon. The ratio between CEO pay and entry-level wages at JPMorgan Chase stands at 381:1, ranking it second highest among the large banks, after Citigroup.
As in the interview with “60 Minutes,” Dimon did not acknowledge any merit in the criticism of his compensation.
Juxtaposition of CEO and entry-level pay is “comparing apples and oranges,” Dimon said, calling the calculation “a complete waste of time.”
“People don’t think clearly about stuff like that,” he added. “We treat our people well, we educate our people, we give them a huge opportunity — and that’s what we should do.”
The minimum starting wage at JPMorgan Chase is $16.50 per hour, though it can start at $18 for workers in high-cost regions.
On Sunday, Dimon acknowledged to “60 Minutes” that JPMorgan Chase played a role in the housing crisis that led to the Great Recession, after Stahl asked whether the bank sold “toxic mortgages.” But he said many other institutions were to blame, including mortgage brokers and government bodies.
“If you’re the average American, you would be angry at what happened,” Dimon says. “There was no Old Testament justice. Too many people — a lot of people — lost their reputation and money, but too many people didn’t and you know, the small guy got hurt.”
While i dont agree with confiscating jamie dimons wealth, i would support and old schooling scourging in the public forum.
“If you’re the average American, you would be angry at what happened,” Dimon says. “There was no Old Testament justice. Too many people — a lot of people — lost their reputation and money, but too many people didn’t and you know, the small guy got hurt.”
Notice he did not say he was the one dishing out the pain, suffering foreclosures illegally!
Posted here on TBP last year(?), Dimon’s tab for lunch was over $41,000.
While I’m a free market guy, the optics get hazy on how anybody can do that.
His responses- “20 years ago it was worse. Cars were worse, health was worse…the air was worse. People didn’t have I-Phones.”- sound like something someone with a learning disability might say. How can a guy that far up the food chain be so inarticulate?
Frankly I could care less, but as a piece of advice maybe you don’t send out holiday cards of your family smacking tennis balls around your penthouse apartment full of million dollar works of art looking like they just took ecstasy. Bad optics as they say in the PR world.
Listen, if things stay on course, why even worry what people think about your billions and billions of dollars? Fuck them, they’re just a bunch of nobodies, dirt people.
But if it ever goes south? You better have a helicopter on the roof on standby because articles like this are going to put you on a lot of people’s lists rather than pacify them.
He’s doing God’s work, what could go wrong?
Well, his god happens to be satan.
Serious question: would you say Jamie Dimon made is $$ (or a part of it) in a fraudulent way?
Asked about his 2018 salary in the tens of millions, Dimon says, “The board sets mine. I have nothing to do with it.”
Absolute cop out. The regular Joe wage earner has his salary set by someone too. In theory one can work hard, get the promotion and increase his salary. CEO’s can do the same, but the goal is to increase the share price and often the means to do that are not always in the best interest of the wage earners at that same company. Wall Street is littered with the wreckage of once good companies employing thousands that failed due to CEO malfeasance. Or worse yet, still profitable companies that increased their value by outsourcing production and abandoning their domestic employees. But so long as the share price went up the board will reward the C-suite. The disconnect is that many executives are so far removed from the actual business that they cause more damage than good in the long run, but make millions for themselves in the short term. I foresee a day when Dimon and others like him will get their retribution.
As for Warren and others that just want to tax-the-rich, that’s a red herring as it has no way of paying for the obscene programs they propose. If so-called obscene CEO pay were disbursed among all the employees of a company it would barely make a ripple in the average paycheck. Still, class envy plays well and there are a lot of peasants than wealthy in this nation. More reason for people like Dimon to watch what they say.
Being a tool of The Evil Fuckers pays quite handsomely: $30 million a year and a net worth of $ 1.6 billion!
The only thing dirty and hard about his work and position are the dirty martinis at lunch and the hard assets Jamie and his cronies are piling up – real estate, jets, yachts, art, private armies…….
“…cronies are piling up – real estate, jets, yachts, art, private armies…….”
Mexico is falling to drug dealers. America is falling to shysters.
STOP TAXING EARNED INCOME.
Dimon, Gates and the rest of that ilk say they would pay more in taxes because they come from the Buffett school of riches. Much of their wealth is in DIVIDENDS and PERKS. Start taxing dividends (and Perks) as they do earned income…and watch the heads explode.
See Bee – Exactly. These people pay NOTHING on a percentage basis. Capital gains rate = 15%. No Social Security tax on income above $132,900. Absolutely ridiculous.
Start treating capital gains as regular income and charge Social Security tax on capital gains. Also, no tax break for “charitable contributions”. You want to be a philanthropist – fine, but no tax write-off for it.
It will never happen.
“Only the little people pay taxes.” – Leona Helmsley
You said it, CC. And Leona Helmsley was vilified for making that statement. And she was just telling the truth. (Probably why they shut her down.)
Politicians and bankers, high income but never really worked a day in their life. Horseshit.