Jamie Dimon gave a great speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce yesterday.  He really should be the person at the helm of the U.S. Treasury.   Dimon was very upbeat and confident that these problems can be overcome if we work together, stop vilifying corporate America and get behind President Obama’s plans.   He said:

“If we act like a dysfunctional family and we don’t finish these things and we’re forever debating them, I think this will go on for several years,” Dimon, 52, said at a conference hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. “It’s completely up to us at this point.”

Mr. Dimon clearly has a solid understanding of the destructive psychological capabilities of deflation.  On the other hand his solutions for the problems at hand appear to be self serving and misguided (he is anti-nationalization which should come as no surprise).  His comments regarding the vilification of corporations and the economy are dead on.  We need to stop talking down the economy and the corporations that are the lifeblood of the economy.  The blame game and negativity is entirely counterproductive at this point in the cycle.  There will come a time when we will prosecute those who caused this crisis, but that is not where our focus should be at this moment.  Main Street and Wall Street need to understand that they are one in the same in this fight.  Deflation is as much a product of psychology as monetary policy.  This constant negativity needs to be counteracted or else we will certainly suffer the same consequences Japan suffered.  Dimon seems to know this and he could not be more correct.

Unfortunately, Mr. Dimon agrees with President Obama’s policy actions thus far and believes we should stand behind the President’s actions.  These beliefs are clearly self serving as any form of nationalization is bad for the entire banking sector.  Unfortunately for Obama, he has not given the citizens of this country a plan that is worth uniting behind.  American’s do not want to see their tax dollars used to prop up zombie banks as Japan did.   They do not want to see $800B go into a Democratic spending plan that accomplishes little more than provide a short-term boost to output and employment (this too has been tried in the past and failed).  Americans want to see a decisive, transparent, and intelligent use of their money.  Thus far we have gotten none of that.

The entire speech can be found here: