{"id":42654,"date":"2025-07-16T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42654"},"modified":"2025-07-16T13:00:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:00:39","slug":"jamie-dimons-last-stand-hopefully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/16\/jamie-dimons-last-stand-hopefully\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Dimon’s Last Stand (Hopefully)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
ROBERT REICH<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
JUL 15, 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days ago, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, said<\/a> at an international forum in Dublin, Ireland, the tax-haven capital of Europe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they\u2019re idiots. I always say they have big hearts and little brains. They do not understand how the real world works. Almost every single policy rolled out failed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Failed? Like the Affordable Care Act? Medicare and Medicaid? Social Security? Spending on basic research and infrastructure? On protecting Americans from dread diseases? On protecting workers from death and injury on the job? On protecting the environment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As distinct from policies rolled out by the Republicans? Such as their subsidies to Big Oil? Their racist attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion? Or Trump\u2019s Big Ugly Bill that will take $1 trillion out of Medicaid, cause over 11 million Americans to lose their health coverage, and increase the national debt by more than $3 trillion \u2014 all to cut the taxes of the ultra-wealthy, such as Jamie Dimon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do I even mention Jamie Dimon? Who cares what he thinks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, many people do. He\u2019s the business person the mainstream media turns to for his views on the economy and the direction America is heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years he\u2019s also been the darling of corporate Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimon was the business person Democrats turned to when they needed someone to say (as he did, truthfully) that \u201cforty percent of Americans make less than $15 an hour [and] can\u2019t afford a $400 bill, whether it\u2019s medical or fixing their car,\u201d or that \u201cmiddle class incomes have been stagnant for years. Income inequality has gotten worse. More than 28 million Americans don\u2019t have medical insurance at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those days, Dimon was a truth-teller. He also sounded like a Democrat, which he used to claim he was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until Donald Trump came along. Then Dimon became a dimon in the rough (sorry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning after JPMorgan Chase\u2019s second-quarter earnings exceeded forecasters\u2019 expectations, Dimon called the economy \u201cresilient\u201d and opined that Trump\u2019s policies were responsible. \u201cThe finalization of tax reform and potential deregulation are positive for the economic outlook,\u201d he said.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, please. Trump\u2019s cockamamie tariffs and his Big Ugly bill could cause the economy to tank within weeks. We learned today that inflation grew in June as the weight of Trump\u2019s tariffs started to affect the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But big banks and their CEOs have reaped a bonanza from high interest rates. They\u2019ll do even better from Trump\u2019s tax cuts and further deregulation of Wall Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the real tragedy for America has to do with Dimon himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time in this nation\u2019s history when our most influential business leaders need to stand up loudly and clearly \u2014 for the rule of law, for democracy, for decency, for America\u2019s moral authority in the world, and against Donald Trump \u2014 Jamie Dimon is calling Democrats \u201cidiots\u201d and otherwise staying silent in the face of Trump\u2019s cruelty and brutality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimon is the quintessence of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s famous admonition: \u201cThe silence of the good people is more dangerous than the brutality of the bad people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how fascism takes root and spreads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t it time we held Jamie Dimon accountable? My strong recommendation for those of you who have an account with JPMorgan Chase is to consider moving your money to another bank headed by someone with more integrity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROBERT REICH JUL 15, 2025 Friends, A few days ago, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, said at an international forum in Dublin, Ireland, the tax-haven capital of Europe: \u201cI have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they\u2019re idiots. I always… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42656,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42654\/revisions\/42656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}