Jamie Dimon hopes Mamdani calls Detroit mayor for advice
By Matt Egan, CNN
New York (CNN) — JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has some advice for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani: Talk to the man who helped bring Detroit back from the dead.
Dimon, who has been critical of Mamdani, suggested the incoming New York City mayor could learn a lot from outgoing Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
“I hope he calls up…this mayor because that’s the way you learn. You say, ‘How did you do it? What did you do?’” Dimon told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday during a live interview alongside Duggan, who is stepping down from office next year and running for governor of Michigan.
The JPMorgan CEO said he left Mamdani a message on Wednesday and is willing to meet with the self-proclaimed democratic socialist.
“If I find it productive, I’ll continue to do it,” Dimon said, adding that he considers himself “patriotic” and is willing to help “any mayor, any governor.”
During a press conference on Wednesday, Mamdani said he looks forward to meeting with Dimon and argued universal agreement across “every single issue” should not be a prerequisite to have a dialogue.
Dimon is among the business leaders whose companies invested in Detroit when it was in dire straits.
“This city was in deep trouble,” Dimon said of Detroit after the Great Recession. “This wasn’t like New York, which is kind of healthy.”
But Dimon suggested the jury is still out on whether Mamdani will succeed – and the key will be how he executes his vision.
“I’ve seen a lot of mayors and governors, political leaders. Some grow into the job. …They fix the life, they fix the crime, they fix the hospitals. They fix the ambulance times,” Dimon said.
On the other hand, Dimon said some mayors get overwhelmed by the job.
“I’ve seen a lot of people when it comes to the execution part, they fall down so flat that it doesn’t matter where the heart is, they will fail to accomplish their goals,” he said.
“I’m hoping he’s the good one. That will be important to the future of New York,” Dimon said.
The Detroit mayor argued city leaders must be willing to work alongside business leaders.
“I embraced Jamie Dimon at a time when people said this was maybe politically risky,” Duggan said, adding the way JPMorgan provided low-income housing and job training programs helped win over the public. “There is a way to embrace a partner that the community buys into. And that’s what we did.”
JPMorgan announced Wednesday that its investment in Detroit has now surpassed $2 billion, and the bank’s main presence in the city is moving to Hudson’s Detroit, a new complex downtown.
Trade and tariffs
Duggan, a former Democrat now running as an independent, criticized President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade agenda, which the White House says is meant to help American factory workers who have been hurt by jobs shipped overseas.
“I live in Detroit. You don’t have to explain anything to Detroiters about bad trade agreements America has made over the years. They’ve emptied out the manufacturing industry in Michigan, and I think the right tariffs on Mexico and Canada could have helped,” Duggan said.
Yet the Detroit mayor argued Trump’s tariffs on Canada are backfiring because of how closely intertwined the North American supply chain has become. He noted Canadian auto supplier plants, located right across the river from Detroit, send parts to his city’s three manufacturing plants.
“When you put a tax on Canada, you put a tax on Michigan cars. I do think the Canadian tariffs need to be addressed, because it is starting to hurt the Michigan economy,” Duggan said.
The comments came hours after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a case challenging Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose global tariffs. Most justices appeared deeply concerned with Trump’s reliance on a vague federal law to impose the duties.
Trump argued in a social media post on Tuesday that the case is “literally, LIFE OR DEATH for our Country” because without the emergency powers the United States would be “virtually defenseless against other Countries.”
Asked if the Supreme Court case is a matter of life or death, Dimon said: “I don’t think so.”
Dimon said tariffs are “a factor,” but “may not be the deciding factor” in growing the US economy.
The JPMorgan CEO did, however, credit Trump officials with “starting to do a better job” on trade by examining “what’s working, what’s not working and making adjustments.”
Dimon on recession, AI bubble worries
But Dimon did say that there is “weakening in the job market, there’s no question,.” albeit not yet at a recessionary level.
“The economy is still chugging along. It may have gotten a little bit weaker, but right now it’s still kind of in that soft landing,” Dimon said.
Unlike the real economy, the stock market has been on fire since April – propelled in part by the artificial intelligence boom.
Dimon called chipmaker Nvidia – a company whose near-$5 trillion valuation is now greater than the size of all but two or three economies in the world – an “unbelievable company” and praised AI as “real” and capable of making companies “hugely productive.”
Dimon conceded that not all AI companies will ultimately succeed, and there will be setbacks along the way – like with the dotcom bubble.
“It’s like the internet thing. They may not all pay off, but you did get Google, Facebook, YouTube, part of Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce,” he said. “Yeah, there was a little bit of a bubble in there.”
Dimon acknowledged the “valuation today may be too high for some of these folks,” but he added there is “enormous” potential for AI to open the door to breakthrough inventions in medicine, engineering and elsewhere.
“Mankind should benefit,” he said.
Dimon conceded that AI could eliminate up to 80% of the jobs in some professions, but he emphasized the technology could create jobs elsewhere.
The key, according to Dimon, will be coming up with “thoughtful” government assistance if AI moves “too fast for society” and “proper regulation” to safeguard the technology.
The-CNN-Wire
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