Jared Evan
An economic hurricane is on the horizon, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said at a Bernstein conference on Wednesday.
“You know, I said there’s storm clouds but I’m going to change it… it’s a hurricane,” he said, adding that the potential for an imminent economic recession requires preparation by banks- Yahoo Finance points out.
“We don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy. You better brace yourself.”
Dimon said at JPMorgan’s investor day in May that there were “storm clouds” looming over the US economy, but he said he’s since updated that forecast given the challenges faced by the Federal Reserve as it attempts to rein in inflation- Yahoo noted.
“Right now it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle it,” Dimon said.
“We’ve never had QT (quantitative tightening) like this, so you’re looking at something you could be writing history books on for 50 years.”
Goldman Sachs President John Waldron piled on with pessimistic opinions, Zero Hedge pointed out
At an investor conference this morning, Waldron joked that he’ll avoid “using any weather analogies,” but spelled out his fear that risks from inflation, changing monetary policy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could kneecap the global economy.
“This is among – if not the most – complex, dynamic environments I’ve ever seen in my career,” Waldron said.
“The confluence of the number of shocks to the system to me is unprecedented.”
Bloomberg reports, Waldron emerged as one of the harshest critics of the Fed from the banking sector earlier this year, when he assailed the central bank for what he perceived as its lack of autonomy and resolve to withstand the pressure to carry out measures needed to tame the hottest inflation in 40 years.
“We expect there’s going to be tougher economic times ahead,” Waldron said.
“No question we are seeing a tougher capital-markets environment.”
Finally, Waldron warned of a slowing in the merger market from the current “resilient” levels:
“That’s going to start to roll over because you see demand destruction, CEOs get a little less confident,” Waldron said.
“That’s a reasonable expectation, but we’re watching that carefully as a signal.”
