Dimon: CEOs can't expect "everything to be constantly easy"
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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said on Tuesday that chief executives should maintain key investments — including workforce initiatives — as businesses grapple with historic policy uncertainty.
Why it matters: White House trade policy and up-in the-air tax legislation has muddled the economic outlook for small and large businesses, with many hesitant to make investment decisions in this environment.
What they're saying: "I don't buy this notion that somehow we have the right to expect everything to be constantly easy," Dimon said. "There will be economic problems."
- "I don't think you should make money on the basis of what you think the economy might do in the next 12 or 18 months," Dimon said.
State of play: Dimon spoke at a workforce event hosted by the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that works on behalf of America's largest corporations, which he once chaired.
- "We don't do almost anything stop-start," Dimon said, calling out programs to train and hire people. "We have a plan, we do the plan and we navigate through the ups and downs of the economy."
- "We trim ourselves, maybe but we never get rid of the programs that we think are right," Dimon said.
- "I've seen companies that are constantly stop-start — canceling training. It's very hard to get going again and then people don't believe you can do it when you start again the second time," he added.
The intrigue: Dimon said that he has, in the past, received calls from other business leaders who say they plan to cut certain programs associated with longer-term investments to weather economic storms.
- "I'm like 'shame on you.' If we don't do these things, we can't have a proper country," Dimon said, joking that he usually "sells the stock" after such conversations.
- "Workforce development can't be cyclical," he said.
