Jamie Dimon took aim at insipid CEO letters, criticized nonsense regulations, and struck a wary tone on the economy at the Morgan Stanley US Financials Conference on Tuesday.
The JPMorgan boss said that “some CEOs, they’re pretty good; others are just constant corporate pablum, so I don’t read them,” according to an AlphaSense transcript of his comments.
“I always read Buffett’s, Andy Jassy’s, and Jeff Bezos,” Dimon said, referring to Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and the current and former CEOs of Amazon.
During the event, the billionaire banker invoked Bezos’ quote that “your margin is my opportunity” to underscore JPMorgan’s competitiveness. He also channeled Buffett’s love of bargains and willingness to wait for the right opportunity.
“I like buying stocks when they’re cheap,” Dimon said about JPMorgan’s buyback strategy. “Basically we’re going to be patient,” he said about the bank’s excess capital, describing it as “just earnings in store and cash waiting to be deployed.” That echoes Buffett’s view of Berkshire’s huge cash hoard as dry powder for future deals.
The head of America’s biggest bank also spoke colorfully about annual reports, financial regulations, and company culture. On the subject of 10-Ks, he said that “no one reads them anymore because they’re so full of crap.”
In regard to banking regulations, Dimon said “you probably throw the whole goddamn thing out since it doesn’t work — 80,000 pages of shit.” He added that some regulatory calculations are “through the looking glass” and someone who took time to think about them would say, “What the hell is that?”
Dimon also emphasized the value of open communication in the workplace, saying it “gets rid of politics and BS” when meetings aren’t just “run for the boss.”
The Wall Street heavyweight issued a cautious economic outlook, saying he expected employment to fall and inflation to rise a “little bit” as the Trump administration’s import taxes and immigration crackdown take effect.
“The tariffs are just hitting,” Dimon said. “It may just make the soft landing a little bit softer” without making “the ship go down.”
