Jamie Dimon Worries About US Debt

AH yes, light the house on fire and then call the fire department to put it out. Then complain when the fire gets out of control and starts burning down your neighborhood. I’m talking about the Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) mess in 2007/2008 and how the big banks gambled with our economy and almost took down the entire global financial system.

Jamie Dimon, head of JP Morgan, agreed to pay $13 billion dollars to settle claims that it had misled investors in the years leading up to the financial crisis (via Vanity Fair). There was even a lawsuit against him by the Feds but it was dropped after the fine was paid.

Now Jamie is worried that our US debt payments will spiral out of control. According to the Yahoo article, we’re now sitting on 120% Debt to GDP, our debt payments are starting to outpace what we can earn.

Jamie Dimon says Washington is facing a global market “rebellion” because of the tab it is racking up, while Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan believes it’s time to stop admiring the problem and instead do something about it. - via Yahoo Finance

No shit sherlock! The debt is out of control and we’re in a death spiral already with our next station stop: Banana Republic.

Elsewhere The Black Swan author Nassim Taleb says the economy is in a “death spiral”, while Fed chairman Jerome Powell says it’s past time to have an “adult conversation” about fiscal responsibility.

What I think happened to these “titans of capitalism” is they got caught in the 2007/2008 meltdown with their pants down, then tried to re-engineer things so they can keep sucking off the Fed’s easy money tit, and got blindsided by COVID-19 and Trump.

Let’s face it, they all thought Trump would come into line but his chaotic administration and tax cuts (which they welcomed) just weakened everything and then COVID-19 came in in with the knockout punch.

They’re raising the alarm now because the rigged system they built to enrich themselves is starting to crumble. They started the fire and thought they could control things but I guess not. They screwed the pooch and burnt down the house instead.