JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon ‘hopes’ for a soft landing, but is still skeptical

“Hopefully, we’re on our way to a soft landing, said JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon at a conference on Friday. “But I wouldn’t count my eggs.”

He said he’s “a little more skeptical than other people. I give it lower odds, but I hope it’s true.”

Regarding the potential of resurging inflation and the potential of a recession, he said, “We don’t know.” I think most people spend too much time on short-term data and guessing the future… most people can’t guess it.”

Inflation has come down, and it may come down further, but there are a number of factors that point to inflation staying sticky in the long term — government deficit, the green economy, the remilitarization of the world, the restructuring of global trade, and demographics.

“I don’t see the massive offsets to that,” he said. The economy may be moving from a low inflation environment to a slightly higher rate in the future. “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. Economies are used to dealing with that. It’s not a disaster. It’s just different than we had in the past.”

In the short-run, the president has almost no effect on the U.S. economy, he said. However, policy can have a huge impact in the long run, he said.

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