Jamie Dimon Warns Of The Enemy Within, Says He’s Not As Worried About China

Dimon underscored the rising U.S. debt levels – at a 100% debt-to-GDP ratio and 7% deficit, he said this is the highest during peacetime in U.S. history.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday said he is worried more about an enemy within the U.S. than external potential adversaries like China.

Speaking at the Reagan National Economic Forum, Dimon said the world’s tectonic plates are shifting, and pointed to two major changes currently underway.

“The tectonic plates of geopolitics, with these terrible wars, terrible proxy terrorist activities around the world… North Korea… the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons…” he said, according to CNBC.

Furthermore, he also added that a tectonic shift is currently underway in the global economy.

Dimon underscored the rising U.S. debt levels – at a 100% debt-to-GDP ratio and 7% deficit, he said this is the highest during peacetime in U.S. history.

The JPMorgan CEO said he is not as worried about China, adding that the country is a “potential adversary.” “They do a lot of things well, they have a lot of problems. What I worry about is us.”

He wondered if the U.S. can get its act and values together, saying that mismanagement is “going to kill us.”

Talking about the U.S. dollar remaining the reserve currency, Dimon said, “If we’re not the preeminent military, preeminent economy in 40 years, we will not be the reserve currency.”

While the U.S. has remained resilient so far, Dimon said this time is different and that the country has to change course very quickly.

Elaborating on the “enemy within,” Dimon said, “We’ve got to fix our permitting, our regulations, our immigration, our taxation… we’ve to fix our inner city schools, our healthcare system.”

“If we grow 3% a year, all these problems [will] disappear.”

He said he hopes that the Trump administration’s goal is to expand and maintain U.S. military and economic alliances.

Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down 0.59% at the time of writing.

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