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(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon said that tariffs, if properly used, can help resolve issues such as unfair competition and national security.
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“Like any tool, if it’s misused it can do damage too,” the chief executive officer of the largest US bank said in an interview on CBS News’ Sunday Morning. Dimon said he hasn’t spoken with President-elect Donald Trump about tariffs.
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Trump is “a negotiator, he lays out some very tough things and sometimes it works,” Dimon said. “We have to worry more about national security, resiliency, diversified supply chains, and we didn’t. And also we should’ve worried more about who it hurt.”
Trump, who’s due to take office on Jan. 20, has vowed to slap new charges on imports from US adversaries such as China as well as allies including Canada and Mexico, raising concerns that supply-chain disruption will slow economic growth and push prices higher. Trump contends that tariffs can blunt what he calls unfair practices from foreign companies and governments.
In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon, 68, said he wasn’t surprised that Trump won the election last year because voters were angry about ineffective government. They “wanted more pro-growth and pro-business policies,” and “didn’t want to be lectured to on social policies continuously,” he said.
As for the planned so-called Department of Government Efficiency, slated to be run by billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Dimon said he doesn’t know if that’s the right way to do it but he “absolutely” wants them to succeed.
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In almost two decades atop JPMorgan, Dimon has become increasingly outspoken about policy matters beyond those that directly affect the finance industry.
In the interview aired Sunday, he repeated warnings he’s made in his annual shareholder letters and elsewhere that this is the most precarious geopolitical situation since World War II. He said he has spoken with some of Trump’s staff, offering help because “politics aside, policy’s got to be right.”
Dimon was also asked if he knows who his successor at JPMorgan will be — a longtime Wall Street parlor game — and he said he doesn’t.
—With assistance from Ramsey Al-Rikabi.
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