Jamie Dimon speaking after receiving an award, he addressed the Occupy movement - Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife
With Occupy Wall Street making headlines again,JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who’s been atarget of the movementin the past, took a second to acknowledge some of their “legitimate complaints” on Thursday. While recognizing thatWashington and Wall Street let America down, the head of what many consider America’s strongest bank asked the Occupy movement not to put every one-percenter in the same bucket, calling that a “form of discrimination.”
It’s striking to see Jamie Dimon, the CEO of one of Wall Street’s most powerful banks, agreeing with those that have demonized him and his industry. Dimon spoke on Thursday after receiving the executive of the year award from the Simon School of Business.
“[There’s] two things they generically complain about I agree with,” began Dimon, after being asked his about the Occupy movement. “The average American [can] look at the institutions of America and [say] they’ve let me down: these are Washington and Wall Street,” explained the banker.
Dimon was speaking about the financial crisis, making it clear that capitalism had suffered a terrible blow, and that both the financial sector and the government deserve much of the blame. As I’ve reported previously, banks and their CEOs enjoyed a special place within the economic system, which they abused, causing that same system to collapse. (ReadOccupy Wall Street, JPMorgan, And The Fall Of The Banks).
The head of JPMorgan recognized that in many cases, the system had been unfair. “A lot of people made a lot of money [going into the crisis], [then] their company blew up, and they [still] walked out with a lot of money,” he explained, acknowledging he didn’t like that either.
Dimon was asking the Occupy movement to recognize that not everyone that is part of the so-called 1% is a villain, he was also asking Occupy to present solutions, rather than just problems. Occupy Wall Street has targeted banks, and their CEOs in particular, as being part of a system that is rigged, exacerbating income inequality. But by closing down bank branches, they are making it more difficult for small businesses to get access to loans, explained Dimon.
Last October, thousands of protesters took to the streets, marching to the homes of several Forbes 400 members like NewsCorp head Rupert Murdoch, billionaire David Koch, and Jamie Dimon himself, as my colleague Edwin Durgy reported. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, has been a common target as well.
Dimon isn’t the first bank CEO to come out in favor of certain parts of Occupy’s message. Citi CEO Vikram Pandit said the Occupy movement’s ire is “understandable,” adding that he’d be happy to talk with the protesters in an attempt to regain their trust. The move didn’t work out too well for Pandit after his phone number was publicly published and Occupy protesters flood his inbox, as my colleague Ken Rapoza reported.
Others, like billionaire investor Warren Buffett, have come out in favor of a new tax code that doesn’t favor the rich. Buffett has given the now-famous example of his secretary paying a higher tax rate than he does, with President Obama now pushing for the so-called “Buffett tax.” Wall Street veteran and billionaire Leon Cooperman, in an open letter to the president, also noted he’s for higher taxes, adding he sympathizes with the Occupy movement, an issue he recently discussed with Steve Forbes.
Back to JPMorgan, Dimon did propose a solution. “Where’s the solution? We [already] have progressive taxation, [the] best solution is to get inner city kids to graduate,” said Dimon. The banker put the focus on education, noting that improved graduation rates would not only help those involved, but the economy as a whole.
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