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Page added on April 7, 2016
JPMorgan CEO Warns of Economic ‘Tragedy
In about a decade, the U.S. will have no choice but to take action to address a “tragedy that we can see coming,” according to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.
AP
In his annual letter to the company, Dimon laid out his “key concerns” about the future of the U.S. economy and the “serious issues” that need to be fixed:
“The long-term fiscal and tax issues (driven mostly by healthcare and Social Security costs, as well as complex and poorly designed corporate and individual taxes), immigration, education (especially in inner city schools) and the need for good, longterm infrastructure plans.”
Dimon, who said he is not looking at the issue in a “partisan way,” argued that only “early action would be relatively painless.”
“I do not believe that these issues will cause a crisis in the next five to 10 years, and, unfortunately, this may lull us into a false sense of security. But after 10 years, it will become clear that action will need to be taken,” he wrote. “The problem is not that the US economy won’t be able to take care of its citizens — it is that taking away benefits, creating intergenerational warfare and scapegoating will make for very difficult and bad politics.”
He reiterated, “This is a tragedy we can see coming.”
Dimon also offered policy makers four key tips for identifying a solution on what he sees as an impending crisis.
• “DON’T paint everything as black and white”
• “DON’T attack an entire class or society of people”
• “DO compromise”
• “DO reconsider existing policy and institutions”
Read more of the letter here.
34 Comments on "JPMorgan CEO Warns of Economic ‘Tragedy"
Plantagenet on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 5:45 pm
Gosh—I thought Obama fixed all the healthcare problems by instituting Obamacare. Does’t Obamacare control healthcare costs while making affordable healthcare available for all Americans as promised?
Cheers!
HARM on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 6:04 pm
“The long-term fiscal and tax issues (driven mostly by healthcare and Social Security costs…”
How predictable. Of course Mr. Bailout (one of the worst, most corrupt banksters of all time) would say that transfer payments to the sickest, poorest and most politically powerless Americans are the big problem.
Meanwhile the $Trillions in taxpayer’s money pissed away on wars of choice, banking sector bailouts and subsidies for Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Agra, etc., well that’s just “good Capitalism ™”
HARM on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 6:40 pm
@Planter,
As you already know, Obamacare was primarily a giant BJ to the insurance and drug industries. The tiny amount of actual “reform” in it was never going to bend the cost curve down, and was never designed to. The main idea was to create profitable new captive markets for the uninsured (while still leaving !30 million out in the cold).
True progressives (or leftist spawns of Satan, as you may call us) knew from the get go that national healthcare, aka Medicare for all, was the only realistic cure for the rigged casino that is American for profit sick-care.
Anonymous on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 6:42 pm
Dimon also offered policy makers four key tips for identifying a solution on what he sees as an impending crisis.
ROFL
• “DON’T paint everything as black and white”
Translation:We like to work in the grey area, so dont talk about nebulous concepts relating to our activities like good, or bad, legal, or illegal, ethical or immoral etc. Keep all in the ‘grey’ area so we can avoid any realistic appraisals of what is actually going on here.
• “DON’T attack an entire class or society of people”
Translation:Dont blame the ‘job creators’ for rigging the system to make themselves unaccountable(and obscenely wealthy). Because upper class society dont deserve to be discriminated against by you filthy peasants just because we happen to be so much better than the rest of you.
• “DO compromise”
Translation:Go along with absolutely everything we say, do, or propose. Everything….
• “DO reconsider existing policy and institutions”
Translation:Reconsider all that wasteful spending, like, public education, universal healthcare, rights, food inspection, consumer protection laws, all that crap….
Boat on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 7:05 pm
Plantagenet on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 5:45 pm
“Gosh—I thought Obama fixed all the healthcare problems by instituting Obamacare. Does’t Obamacare control healthcare costs while making affordable healthcare available for all Americans as promised”?
In 2008 healthcare was 17.3 percent of the US economy. In 2015 it was 17.
16.5 million were added to the insurance roles.
Sorry Plant, Obama did make progress.
makati1 on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 7:11 pm
Ten years? He’s being very optimistic. Five or less is my view. Social Security and the Meds are drawing to a close. As are all of the social safety nets.
The Us is going down under it’s own immense load of debt and hubris. The rest of the West will follow, along with some pain everywhere else. Bring it on and get it over with!
Go Speed Racer on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 7:13 pm
I like how Anonymous said it. That is exactly what I was thinking of this Billionaire JP Morgan far-right 0.01% member of the bankster club that destroyed this country, belongs in a medium security prison in a pinstripe suit but Obama is so Republican-light, he let them all get away with it.
makati1 on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 7:43 pm
Some facts:
Per capita national health
expenditures: $9,255 (2013)
Total national health expenditures: $2.9 trillion (2013)
The United States ranked highest on the list of the 20 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for health care expenditure, but last for coverage
Life expectancy at birth in the U.S is lower than comparable OECD countries–just under 79 years, compared to an average of about 82 years for comparable countries.
In terms of infant mortality, the United States ranks 169 of the 224 countries surveyed.
The rate began rising more significantly last year (2014), when it grew by an estimated 5.5 percent to reach $3.1 trillion in total spending, the first time since 2007 that health inflation had topped 5 percent.
US Inflation is only <2% LMAO
Healthcare costs per capita (2014):
US = $9,255.
Canada $4,429.
Germany $5,002.
Japan $ 3,768.
Life expectancy:
US = 79.68 years
Canada = 81.76
Germany = 80.57
Japan = 84.74
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
theedrich on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 8:23 pm
When comparing the U.S. to other OECD countries, the lefties like to omit the fact that, percentage-wise, we have much, much more human dross than the others. The immense Negro load is worst of all. Next in line are the illegals, today coming especially from India and other Asian countries. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is now also importing Sand Negroes from MENA to make the problem even worse. And giving entitlements to all of the new paranthropoids. All, under cover of what the elites like to call “our values.”
The big banks are doing no more than what their puppets (e.g., Ø, soon to be followed by Her Highness) allow them to do. The White middle class is being destroyed by government actions — a kind of slow democide. And yet its religiously driven masochism allows the process of fraud and collapse to continue. This is not even to mention the narcotics plague which is eating the nation out from within. The Demonic Party is the primary beneficiary of this suicide, but the Repubs are taking their share of the bennies, too.
There are so many axes now chopping away at the root of the national tree that the “tragedy” may be much more than economic, and may come sooner than Mr. Dimon expects.
GregT on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 9:24 pm
Mr. Dimon and his ilk are a very large part of the problem theedrich, and they are all white.
joe on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 11:13 pm
Thats why he calls it ethnosuicide. He might be crude and rude. But that might not make him wrong.
Sadly we all have to face up to what we are doing to the planet. But probobly the societies we live in will be gone in 100 years from now. He may call it what he wants but it may not matter. Were passed a tipping point in GW. The only question is how bad. Peak oil will be the least of our worries.
makati1 on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 11:32 pm
joe, peak oil should be the least of our worries now. Downsizing our consumption should be our first priority, not worrying about price or fictitious numbers of barrels. The society we live in today, in the West, is already collapsing. It will not take 100 years or even 10 to make America a 3rd world country. Maybe this year or next, it will become obvious to even the most brainwashed sheeple that they are already there.
GregT on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 11:53 pm
joe,
I never said thee was wrong. I happen to agree with him. The white race is suicidal. That doesn’t mean we are special, it means that we are an evolutionary dead end, and we are taking all of the other races, and most life on this planet, with us.
I agree with you as well, peak oil is the least of our worries. We have far more to be concerned about with not running out of oil, than we do with the end of the oil age. I have to disagree with you on the societal front however, society as we know it isn’t going to last a few more decades, never mind 100 years. I give it less than 15 years.
Plantagenet on Thu, 7th Apr 2016 11:59 pm
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/12/03/Federal-Health-Care-Costs-Surge-17-Percent-GDP
Maybe Dimon is right….contrary to Boat’s claim above, federal healthcare spending surged by 11% just last year. That kind of rapid increase in health care spending is clearly unsustainable.
Cheers!
GregT on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 12:08 am
“federal healthcare spending surged by 11% just last year”
One more thing that Obama did that all Americans should be thankful for. He increased access to healthcare for everyone.
Obama should be awarded the Nobel Prize. A true humanitarian.
GregT on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 12:12 am
The greatest leader the US has had since Jimmy Carter.
Plantagenet on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 1:09 am
Everyone in America, citizens or not, ALREADY had access to healthcare thanks to the EMTALA passed in 1986.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act
Obamacare was supposedly going to reduce health care COSTS. Thats why it is named the “affordable care act” Unfortunately, it has failed to live up to the promises—health care costs in the USA continue to escalate much more rapidly then inflation.
Cheers!
HARM on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 3:25 am
It’s good that Obamacare decreased the number of uninsured, but it did not go anywhere near far enough. Tinkering with a few rules while leaving the core of a corrupt for profit racket in place was a big mistake.
The soft bigotry of low expectations combined with a misplaced faith in so called “free markets”.
makati1 on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 3:29 am
I hope that was sarcasm, GregT. The real numbers tell a different story of coverage that requires thousands of out of pocket money before any coverage kicks in and at high monthly cost to families.
Americans spend at least twice that of any other country on health care per capita and is sliding down the health charts in every category. It is nowhere near #1 in health or even longevity and is near the bottom in infant deaths.
Davy on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 6:18 am
All races are suicidal. Racist talk race period white or color. I am sure if you google it you can get all the details of why it is a mental and personality issue. The real issue is the society the races develop. The white race has developed the most destructive of societies but most other races have embraced it either by want or force and usually both.
This is because it is human nature to want comfort, efficiency, and leisure. The Native Americans Buffalo tribes on the Plains when well situated with plenty spent many hours in diversion. This is not a white thAng it is human nature.
Where the Native Americans differed was a strong sense of cultural order. Everyone in the tribe had a place that was defined from birth. Whites developed democracy and individual rights. Look where that got us. In the beginning it was a great idea except humans are not capable of controlling individual wants when combine in democracy especially with a complex energetic society with a large population. The commons are destroyed then the society fails. The commons refers to both the natural and the human. Inequality is just as bad as destroying a biome.
We are close to failure we just chose to believe we are exceptional. This is especially true of many wealthy whites. Yet, Asians are among the most proud and destructive. The Chinese have an amazing early history but today it is disgusting what they are doing. The Chinese have taken the worst of the west and included the worst of Asia in a deadly stew of destruction at all levels.
Where whites went wrong is development and technology. The culture chose to grow and adapt leaving traditional aspects of their culture for a progress of more and better. As their abilities advanced so did their greed and gluttony. The more and better has never been satisfied. The discarding of early traditions, skills, and culture has left us on the other side of the door of no return. All races have been savage and societies have been savage some more hideous than others.
Davy on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 6:40 am
Peak oil is not the least of our worries. That is a gross distortion. But the question is framed wrong in the first place. It is the combination of peak oil, economic decline, overpopulation, ecosystem destruction, and abrupt climate change combining very quickly with a global system at limits of growth and diminishing returns.
Peak oil is part of this negative convergence of multiple problems that are an existential predicament. Within this macro existential predicament peak oil is reducing our abilities to deal with the other issues. It is all we have to power our efforts to deal with all the other issues. Fossil fuels are killing the planet but they must be used or mass death will occur. They have destroyed our human culture by allowing excesses. This is the catch 22 we need fossil fuels and they are killing us. All other efforts are a failure in scale of time and potency. Renewables are case in point. Degrowth and steady state economies are another fallacy. These so called alternatives to oil and globalism are great to fantasize about but fail when reality tested. They may work locally but the will not prevent mass death from having 7BIL people and 6BIL into overshoot.
There are no plan B’s now. There is no substitution in scale of time or resources to leave fossil fuels. Even if we had new technologies and resources the other problems of climate and ecosystem destruction are too large when combined with overpopulation and overconsumption. We are all in and doomed because of it. We may have the luxury of time to adapt and mitigate at the individual and community level but modern man is toast because of oil and the technology it spawned. This is a snow ball of everything both problems and needs. It is very important now we make good decisions at every level because our maneuver room is compressing. At any time we could step on that board that breaks and drops us into the abyss.
Kenz300 on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 8:19 am
The top 1% want it all….. and the RepubliCON party will give it to them………..
What do RepubliCONS believe…….. depends who is paying….. follow the money……. fossil fuels….. NRA………the top 1%
Are RepubliCONS the real EVIL DOERS………..they want to end Social Security, Medicare and access to contraception…….
twocats on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 8:43 am
i also want to know if that was sarcasm from gregt.
baptized on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 8:57 am
It seems to me Bill Clinton & Prez. Obama have been more conservative than republicans on the subjects being discussed. Clinton put a time limit on welfare, that Bush 2, extended. Prez. Obama’s health care makes people buy insurance or pay a fine. Which is a lot more conservative than non-insured going to emergency rooms and getting medical help for free.
GregT on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 9:02 am
“i also want to know if that was sarcasm from gregt.”
Trolling for planter. I figure it’s good to give something back from time to time, and we all know how much she loves them Dems, especially Obama.
GregT on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 9:18 am
“It is the combination of peak oil, economic decline, overpopulation, ecosystem destruction, and abrupt climate change combining very quickly with a global system at limits of growth and diminishing returns.”
All of the above are the consequences of building a society completely dependant on burning fossil fuels.
We lived on this planet for many tens of thousands of years without being reliant on them. Peak oil is of the least of our concerns, dealing with all of the consequences of a couple of hundred years of fossil fuels based growth, is at the root of all of our problems.
makati1 on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 9:59 am
Whew! For a minute there, GregT, I thought you had lost it.
Yep, we all know planter’s infatuation with free shit from the Dems. Amazing what suckin’ on a government teat can do to a person’s morals and intelligence. Over 50% of Americans are on it in one way or another. Maybe even more, if you count hidden subsidies.
Davy on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 10:28 am
Peak oil cannot be discounted. Some people want to claim problems of a society failing because of oil depletion and oil complex failures are less of a problem than climate change. Climate change is more important and deserves more emphasis.
This comes down to what value you put on death. Is it the calculation of the opportunity cost of death or time value of death? Where do you draw the line saying a billion people dying now because of economic collapse is less bad than a billion later because of climate change? How do we value death? How do you determine when these deaths are more acceptable? Does it matter if our species goes extinct more than it matters for a large die off now. Who is going to be arrogant enough to play God and say billions of people now should die for the betterment of humans down the road? This is especially true now that we are finding the awearness that climate change may be a runaway event anyway.
People have lives now that could immediately be ended by an economic collapse of which peak oil dynamics will be front and center. If oil does not flow and get distributed people starve. The oil is not going to flow and be distributed as needed in a serious collapse situation which is very possible if we don’t get our act together. Nope, peak oil matters just as much as the other serious problems because economic collapse matters. It all matters and it is all negative.
dubya on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 11:41 am
I think the article is an accurate, well written analysis of the situation.
I suspect that he would not advise the same solution as I would – re-enacting the French Revolution; starting at the highest capital worth and working down to a sustainable population.
Of course if this were done on a worldwide basis we would end up with 1 billion people mostly around Mexico, sub-Saharan Africa & North Korea.
steveo on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 11:45 am
Jamie Dimon should be half hanged, drawn and quartered. Go Medieval on that criminal.
Another Northwest Resident on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 1:47 pm
“Jamie Dimon should be half hanged, drawn and quartered. Go Medieval on that criminal.”
Anyone who believes a word that man says is a complete and utter fool – unfortunately that applies to just about everyone in the US political establishment.
You want to go Medieval on Jamie Dimon? You better get the 535 congress critters who suck his dick everyday while you’re at it.
twocats on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 4:33 pm
Money without power isnt much use or at least it wont last. And vice versa.
twocats on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 4:38 pm
I think eventually peak oil will not be as big a worry as climate change… eg once the planet has been knocked completely out of the holoscene. But as for right now, peak oil is still a if not the driving force for why opportunity seems to be shrinking by the day.
theedrich on Sun, 10th Apr 2016 1:25 am
Importing “refugees” hastens exhaustion. The more sob stories succeed in preying upon White Guilt and Christian masochism, the worse the drain on the biosphere. It is the mindless reach for myth-based utopias which result in both lopsided economics (i.e., “billionairism” alongside the poverty of billions) and biospheric degradation.
Imagine, say, allowing burdensome “refugees” to enter the country only on condition that they be sterilized first. Every Jew, every Christian, every secular humanist and all the other weepy types would rise up in fury against anyone who proposed such solutions. Similar reactions have come about in response to the suggestion of paying fecund Negresses several thousand dollars for each month they remain un-pregnant. And yet few will admit the fact that the current, “compassionate” value system is suicidal.
So collapse is inevitable. Because we want it.