Brian Moynihan Tries To Call Jamie Dimon A P*ssy With Spectacular Self-Own

Everyone’s down on the economy these days. Charlie Scharf, as befits a Wells Fargo CEO, is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Morgan Stanley bemoans the “paradigm shift” away from everyone gets rich no matter the fundamentals. Larry Fink is bracing for years of “bouts of fear,” like Elon Musk’s current “super bad feeling” about things harshing his and 10% of his soon-to-be-former employees’ mellow.

Well, the most important economic voice and next president of the United States if this braindead country could get out of its own way Jamie Dimon cannot fail to weigh in on the great issues of our time. So he went down to North Carolina and picked a regionally-appropriate way to express his own trepidation about the future.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, warned of a coming storm caused by a combination of “unprecedented” factors: fiscal stimulus during the pandemic, Federal Reserve policy and the war in Ukraine. “It’s a hurricane,” said Mr. Dimon, who leads the nation’s largest lender. “Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine. Everyone thinks the Fed can handle this. That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or superstorm Sandy.”

Well, for some reason Brian Moynihan was really feeling himself at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference and decided to try to clown on his betters. You don’t come to BriMoy’s house (well, second house) and start spreading this defeatist garbage. Everything’s gonna be fine, Jamie! Don’t be such a freakin’ crybaby.

Alas, as you might expect from a man with Moynihan’s track record, the idea was better than the delivery.

“We’re in North Carolina,” he said. “You’ve got hurricanes that come every year.”

Incredibly, Dimon did not stop Moynihan right there with a cutting, “Yea, we know you have hurricanes every year, Brian.” But it might have been better for all involved if he did.

In a bit of a rambling response, Moynihan made the point that the Fed’s challenge to hike rates is because of a strong underlying economy. What makes the Fed’s job tough right now is “actually a good thing — low unemployment and good wage growth and good consumer spending,” he said….

“The spending is strong and then customers have more money in their accounts than they did prepandemic by multiples,” Mr. Moynihan said. “They’ve got plenty of money to spend….”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s President John Waldron called the economic forces among the most complicated he has seen. But, he added, “I’m going to try not to use any weather analogies.”

Good call, John.

Brian Moynihan dismisses Jamie Dimon’s warning on the economy: ‘You’ve got hurricanes that come every year’ [MW]
Fink, Dimon and Musk have the blues. And one forecaster says they’re not gloomy enough [MW]
Jamie Dimon Says U.S. Consumers Still Have Six to Nine Months of Spending Power [WSJ]
‘It’s a hurricane’: Bank chiefs warn of a weakening economy. [NYT]