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JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that he is on the cautious side of the soft-landing scenario. At the same time, though, he views the U.S. economy’s resilience as “unbelievable,” noting growth has been “booming” in the post-pandemic era.
Nevertheless, there’s a chance that stagflation (i.e., high inflation combined with high unemployment and slow economic growth) could take hold again after four decades, he said in a fireside chat at the Economic Club of New York, citing massive fiscal spending and deficits.
“If you go back to the ’70s, deficits were half they are today, the debt-to-GDP was 35%, not 100%, Dimon noted, contending the U.S.’s fiscal spending is one of the main drivers of the current strong growth. The tradeoff with a debt-fueled economy is inflation, he added.
In his annual letter to JPMorgan (JPM) shareholders issued earlier this month, Dimon cast doubt on the confidence that the U.S. economy will see a soft landing.
“Even if we go into recession, the consumer’s still in good shape,” Dimon said at the ECNY event.