In Jamie Dimon’s America, the stock market has already voted

JAMIE Dimon was recently asked: “If you had to describe the US economy, how resilient is it?” His answer was unequivocal: “Basically, it’s booming.” It was the first time the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co uttered such a superlative since he became the head of the world’s largest bank almost two decades ago.

“If you look at the economy” before the Covid-19 pandemic “it was very low growth for 20 years”, he told the Economic Club of New York on Apr 23. “But if you look at the economy since then, it’s been booming. Unemployment hit an all-time low; it’s been under 4 per cent now for the better part of two or three years.” That’s a sustained rate of joblessness not seen since the 68-year-old Dimon’s elementary school days. “The American consumer, even if we go into a recession, is much wealthier than before,” he said. “Debt service ratios are very low... their home prices are up; their stock prices are up.”

Dimon’s optimism on America is echoed by investors no matter where they are. JPMorgan is one of 17 US-based firms that make up the 20 most valuable companies in the world by stock market value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.