Being an American abroad is an 'embarrassment': JPMorgan CEO

He says, there would be much stronger growth if there were more intelligent decisions

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, fresh from a work trip overseas, unloaded on everything that’s holding back US businesses.

“It’s almost an embarrassment being an American travelling around the world,” Dimon, 61, said on a conference call with analysts. He doesn’t like listening to the “stupid sh*t” Americans have to deal with, expressing frustration over the nation’s inability to invest in infrastructure and overhaul the tax code. “There would be much stronger growth if there were more intelligent decisions and less gridlock.”

Dimon heaped his ire on the US media during an earlier call with reporters to discuss JPMorgan’s second-quarter results. Reporters should focus on the major issues the nation faces rather than the vagaries of the firm’s trading businesses, he said. The biggest US bank reported record profit despite a 19 per cent revenue drop for its bond-trading franchise.

“The United States of America has to start to focus on policy which is good for all Americans, and that is infrastructure, regulation, taxation, education,” Dimon said. “Why you guys don’t write about it every day is completely beyond me. And, like, who cares about fixed-income trading in the last two weeks of June? I mean, seriously.”

Dimon, his voice rising, reeled off statistics to highlight the nation’s failures: Half of the kids in “inner-city schools” don’t graduate; the opioid epidemic claims 35,000 lives a year; and the US hasn’t built a major airport in 20 years, he said.

Dimon had just returned from visiting Israel, Ireland and France, where governments “deeply recognise” the importance of a competitive corporate tax scheme, he said.