According to Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, a “very, very serious” combination of headwinds will likely cause both the U.S. and global economies to enter a recession by the middle of next year. In an interview with CNBC, Dimon, the CEO of the largest bank in the country, stated that the U.S. economy is “actually still doing well,” and consumers are likely to be in better shape compared to the 2008 financial crisis. “But you can’t talk about the economy without talking about stuff in the future — and this is serious stuff,” Dimon told CNBC’s Julianna Tatelbaum on Monday at the JPM Techstars conference in London.
The impact of runaway inflation, interest rates increasing more than expected, the unknown effects of quantitative tightening, and Russia’s war in Ukraine are among the indicators that ring alarm bells for Dimon. “These are very, very serious things which I think are likely to push the U.S. and the world — I mean, Europe is already in recession — and they’re likely to put the U.S. in some kind of recession six to nine months from now,” Dimon said. As the Federal Reserve and other major central banks raise interest rates to combat soaring inflation, there is growing concern about the prospect of an economic recession. Charles Evans, President of the Chicago Federal Reserve, told CNBC last month that the U.S. central bank appears to be going too far and too fast in its efforts to combat high inflation. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point last month, marking the third consecutive increase of this magnitude. Fed officials also indicated they would continue hiking rates well above the current range of 3% to 3.25%.
