JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon sees U.S. economic boom through 2023

Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman, Myles Udland, and Brian Sozzi discuss highlights in Jamie Dimon’s letter to shareholders.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: And an economic boom through 2023, that's what Jamie Dimon is predicting in his annual letter to shareholders. And it's there that we begin this morning. So he comes out with this letter. He-- it's a long letter. It's 66 pages. So he talks about a lot of different matters.

But one of the things he talks about is the potential for an economic boom that he says could, quote, "easily run through 2023." He's talking about government spending as being one of the engines behind that. But he lists a number of things. He says excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, new potential infrastructure bill, successful vaccine, and euphoria around the end of the pandemic. Those are the various things that he's talking about as potential drivers here.

But as I said, he covers a lot of different topics. We've all been going through the letter trying to figure out what stands out to us. Brian Sozzi, for you, one of the things that stands out is-- are Dimon's comments around getting back to the office, how we're going to get back to the office. I mean, JP Morgan, obviously an enormous company, a lot of employees and a lot of moving parts when trying to figure out what the future of work is going to look like, including the construction of a new headquarters in Manhattan.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, Julie and Myles, I just finished all 66 pages about a minute before--

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: --we came on air. I'm pretty proud of myself I could still read that fast. Nonetheless, buried on the bottom of this report, Jamie Dimon does confirm they continue to build-- they will continue to build their new New York City headquarters. But you get some of his thoughts here on life in the office, or lack thereof, after the pandemic, and he talks about, says "A heavy reliance on Zoom meetings actually slows down decision making because there is little immediate follow up."

He also-- he probably also a little bit slams the remote work life. Remember, keep in mind, Jamie Dimon is-- he's been around the block, so to speak. He's been the CEO of JP Morgan for a while, long-time executive. For him, it appears to be being in the office is a good thing. It spurs creativity.

We have heard recently something similar along the lines from Apple CEO Tim Cook. Now, these views are-- stand in stark contrast to what we heard out of Jack Dorsey at Square. You can, as you can-- he's letting his workers work from home indefinitely. Facebook and Google unclear where they stand, somewhere in the middle ground. But Jamie Dimon saying pretty much, hey, once vaccinated, we want our people back in the office. It would be better for business, Myles.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, I mean, Julie mentioned the length. We won't talk too much about it. I just got to know what the process is here. I mean, this is the length of a decent-sized book, and he's, you know, running the biggest bank in the country.

But a couple of headlines here that-- that certainly will get pulled out of this report. On M&A, Sozzi, you flagged this to us, Jamie Dimon talking a lot about what's happening in the fintech space, saying that JP Morgan will likely continue to make acquisitions as they bolster and really as they change their bank around a more digital world now. Certainly, JP Morgan is not in a position that, say, a Goldman Sachs is where they're trying to invent a massive consumer business pretty much out of thin air.

JP Morgan already has an enormous consumer business. And so a lot of those trends that we see in the traditional money center banking business working in favor of them as, you know, things like investment banking get less attractive and, as we've seen over the last couple of weeks, problematic over time. He did comment briefly on sort of the Archegos situation and talked about the ethics around that as well.

But again, going back to the way we introed this with the spending boom that Jamie Dimon is looking at, I don't think he's alone in this, right. We've talked over the last several years that-- I mean, he's a complement to a Warren Buffett. I wouldn't say he's picking up the torch of Buffett or anything. But Jamie Dimon is one of the main spokespeople for American business.

And over the last couple of years as it has been somewhat unfashionable to talk about the prospects for future growth, the future strength of the US economy, Dimon has been one of the voices that has really not wavered on the future of American business, that it would be as prosperous, if not more prosperous, as we have seen. Obviously, he has a lot of suggestions around what should and should not be done to create those conditions, but ultimately remains bullish on America.

And we've written about, here at Yahoo Finance and in the Morning Brief a little bit, some of that data that certainly he is seeing from his economics group complemented by what's coming out of their credit and debit card business. And spending is-- is through the roof. I mean, obviously we're lapping weak comps from these exact weeks one year ago, but spending is basically double what it was at this time last year.

And pandemic or not, that kind of growth certainly speaks to an economic vibrancy that we have not seen in a long time. And you know, Dimon also reminding us, in his way, that this is a very different recovery from what we saw after the financial crisis. And I think the more time that goes by, the more confident many folks, be they economists, strategists, investors, or executives, grow that we are not going to see a repeat of the kind of sluggish growth coming out of the financial crisis that we were stuck with.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, at the same time, Myles, he reminds readers that that growth has not been equally spread, as we know, and he talks about the need to close the gaps. As usual, Dimon weighs in on policy as well, talks about the need for bipartisan efforts to improve the economic lot of all Americans.