Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan & Chase CEO Jamie Dimon both agree that the US economy is doing well and consumers are in good shape. “Consumers essentially have more money in their accounts than they did before the pandemic,” the Bank of America chief said.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said at the annual membership meeting of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in Washington, D.C., last week that the US economy is in good shape despite inflation, market turmoil and international tensions, Bloomberg reported.
Stressing that the Federal Reserve must raise interest rates to slow inflation and take action against the spending force of US consumers, Moynihan is quoted as saying:
The toughest challenge facing the Fed is actually one of the best things about the US economy – that it’s in pretty good shape.
“Consumers essentially have more money in their accounts than they did before the pandemic,” the Bank of America chief added. “They are making more money. Their credit quality remains as high as before. They have more excess capacity.”
On a conference call to discuss Bank of America’s third-quarter results on Monday, Moynihan said: “Analysts may be wondering if the talk of inflation, recession and other factors is up. could [lead to] slower spending growth. We just don’t see [that] here at Bank of America. “
He revealed that the bank’s customers continue to spend freely. Their trading volume increased by 10% in September and first half of October year over year while the number of transactions increased by 6%. Furthermore, the Bank of America executive said customer account balances are higher than they were before the Covid pandemic in early 2020, suggesting that they are in a good position to continue spending. .
JPMorgan CEO: US economy is doing well
The CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jamie Dimon, also believes that US consumers are in good shape and the US economy is doing well.
In an interview with CNBC at the JPM Techstars conference in London last week, the JPMorgan executive said:
Right now, the US economy is actually doing fine. Consumers have money, they spend 10% more than they did last year, their balance sheets are in great shape.
Dimon added: “Yes, debts have increased a bit, but not near pre-Covid levels. So even if we go into a recession, they will be in much better shape than they were in 2008 and 2009. The companies are doing well, the credit is very good.”
However, the JPMorgan CEO warned of an economic storm or something worse than a recession. He believes a recession could hit the US economy for six months and the stock market could easily drop another 20%.
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