JPMorgan Bank CEO Jamie Dimon said Thursday that the Federal Reserve is still working on managing inflation, despite the fact that the US economy is showing indications of strength.
“I have all the respect for [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell, but the fact is we lost a little bit of control of inflation,” Dimon said in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer during the “Halftime Report.” It’s the first of a two-part interview with Cramer, with the second installment airing later Thursday on “Mad Money.”
Dimon’s remarks come a day after the Fed issued minutes from its Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting, which revealed that members remain committed to combating persistent inflation.
“Participants noted that inflation data received over the past three months showed a welcome reduction in the monthly pace of price increases but stressed that substantially more evidence of progress across a broader range of prices would be required to be confident that inflation was on a sustained downward path,” the minutes said.
Dimon himself stated that interest rates might “potentially” remain higher for longer as the central bank may take “a while” to achieve its 2% inflation target.
Yet, the JPMorgan CEO stated that he is not currently preparing for a recession since he is encouraged by the health of the US economy.
“The U.S. economy right now is doing fairly nicely.” Customers have a lot of cash. They’re going to spend it. “There are plenty of jobs,” Dimon stated. “This is the day. There are some terrifying things in front of us. We both know that there is always uncertainty. “That’s not unusual.”
These words contradict Dimon’s prior remarks from October. At the time, he predicted that the US economy would enter a recession in six to nine months. In December, he predicted that increased inflation would erode consumer wealth and lead to a recession this year.
The Federal Reserve has declined to comment on the story.
