Jamie Dimon — the anti-bitcoin CEO of JPMorgan Chase — says a global recession is not coming, so everyone needs to “take a deep breath” and chill out.
Dimon said the Dow and other stock market indices are merely experiencing a temporary hiccup, but that doesn’t mean the US economy will slide into a recession anytime soon.
Dimon to Everyone: ‘Take a Deep Breath’
“It looks to me like a slowdown [not a recession],” Dimon told Fox Business (video below). “Sentiment changed dramatically for a whole bunch of different reasons. But the United States is still growing, at 2.5%. We just had some good wage data.”
It’s very possible we have a slowdown. People [should] take a deep breath. Things will open up a little bit.
Dimon said the recent stock market slump occurred due to concerns about rising interest rates and a potential US trade war with China. But things have calmed down since then, and the market has rebounded nicely.
Despite the recent market turmoil, the US economy is in good shape at the moment. The unemployment rate has plunged to a 48-year-low, and 312,000 jobs were added in December 2018 — far more than the 177,000 that were expected.
“It looks like there will be growth,” Dimon said. “It’s not like we’re going into a global recession. We’re going to have maybe slower growth than people expected a couple of months ago.”
Moreover, Jamie Dimon says that US consumer sentiment is in “good shape” and will continue to improve.
“If you look at actual data, people are getting jobs, more people [are] working, wages going up,” Dimon explained. “Household balance sheet in very good shape, credit card credit — extraordinarily good. It’s better than we deserve at this point in the cycle.”
On Jan. 8, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 23,787, up 256 points, continuing a five-day rally.
Canadian Economist: 80% Chance of US Recession
Dimon’s bullish outlook differs sharply from the bearish projections of Canadian economist David Rosenberg, a strategist with Gluskin Sheff, a Toronto investment firm.
As CCN reported, Rosenberg isn’t impressed by the Dow’s recent recovery. In fact, he claims there’s an 80% chance that the US will fall into a recession, bringing the global economy down with it.
“We’ve got more than 80% chance of recession just based on the fact the Fed is tightening policy,” Rosenberg told CNBC (video below).
For the record, in 2017, Rosenberg predicted that the US economy would crash down in 2018, but that did not happen.