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- The US economy is on the verge of a rapid expansion this year and in 2022, said the billionaire head of JPMorgan Chase.
- CEO Jamie Dimon said unemployed and small businesses “definitely need help” from US officials to cope with the COVID pandemic.
- There is a risk of overheating from too much fiscal stimulus, he said.
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The world’s largest economy looks to be set for a “gangbuster” pace of expansion through next year but US officials should be cautious about unleashing too much fiscal stimulus into the system, said JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday.
His observations come as a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus proposal headed toward a vote in the US Senate just days after lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed the bill.
A new round of stimulus would follow the $900 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief package signed off by then-President Donald Trump in late December.
“There’s a very good chance you’re going to have a gangbuster economy for the rest of this year and easily into 2022,” said Dimon during an interview with Bloomberg TV. “And the question is, ‘does that overheat everything?’ and we just don’t know yet,” he said.
In terms of that risk, Dimon said, “I wouldn’t worry too much about it, but I would suspect there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to see rates going up and people starting to worry about that at one point.”
Dimon quickly added: "I've been very clear: I would not buy 10-year Treasuries, just so you know."
Before his prediction of strong economic growth for this year and next, Dimon said there are '"legitimate complaints" that the current stimulus bill contains items "that have nothing to do with COVID," but that many Americans do need financial assistance to cope with the pandemic.
"Unemployed, they definitely need help. Small businesses, they definitely need help," the JPMorgan chief said.
"I don't know if you know this but [in] half the states, revenues went up. They didn't go down. Do they need help? Are we just throwing money at people at one point?"
He urged officials in his remarks to "try not to overdue it too much."