It probably isn’t necessary to be the head of a Wall Street investment bank to realize if the U.S. defaulted on outstanding debt obligations it would be a less than ideal situation, but Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase’s CEO laid it out pretty succinctly when asked about it this week. 

He said a default would be a “potentially catastrophic event,” and he encourages Congress to get rid of the debt ceiling once and for al. 

“Every single time this comes up, it gets fixed, but we should never even get this close. I just think this whole thing is mistaken, and one day we should just have a bipartisan bill and get rid of the debt ceiling. It’s all politics.”

It seems like this financial song and dance happens a couple times every single year, no matter who is President or what party controls Congress, and each political party is equally guilty of holding the economy hostage as they try to hammer home something that will benefit their side. 

And each time it happens, Dimon’s team at JP Morgan prepares reviews of how credit agencies would react if the debt ceiling were not raised, and the default actually happened.  It’s an expensive exercise. 

“If I remember correctly, the last time we got prepared for this, it cost us $100 million,” Dimon told Fox News. 

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