The work Jamie Dimon has done leading JPMorgan Chase through the crisis has been pretty top-notch, if he does say so himself, and he often does. Yes, critics might point out the reason JPMorgan didn’t have as many subprime mortgage-backed securities on their books was that they were simply slow to the trend, that the bank’s conservative culture was in place well before Dimon ever started there, that Dimon’s personal and professional investments indicate he was scarily late, for someone in his position, to spot the housing bubble — but the fact is at this moment, JPMorgan looks pretty good compared to everyone else. If only everything could be run as well as his bank, Dimon mused in an interview with Reuters. Like America.
“I’m not as worried about JPMorgan as I am about our industry and our country,” he told Reuters.
Wouldn’t it be nice if America was in such smooth, capable hands? Like, say, his own? Unfortunately, and he knows it’s going to be disappointing to everyone who looks up to him, Dimon doesn’t think he’s going to get appointed to the Treasury or anything else anytime soon. Well, it could happen, he guesses, if a few things changed. One thing in particular …
Nah, I mean, he’s not hoping Obama won’t get reelected or anything. They’re totally friends, no matter what you’ve heard. (“I don’t have hurt feelings,” he said, of the treatment he’s received from the White House. “Whether they take my counsel, that’s up to them. I never stopped talking to them.”) But yeah, wouldn’t that be nice if it were possible for someone as capable as Dimon to be in public office? He’s just saying.
Jamie The Good [Reuters PDF]
