Debt could destroy US economy – JP Morgan boss

Jamie Dimon calls for the snowballing US debt burden to be addressed before it turns into crisis

The US economy is heading towards disaster as the vast national debt continues to mount, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in an interview with Fox News earlier this week.

According to the chief executive of the nation’s largest bank, the situation urgently needs to be tackled by the government before it causes a major economic crisis.

“It is a cliff, we see the cliff,” Dimon said. “It’s about 10 years out, we’re going 60 miles an hour [toward it].”

The top executive agreed with the view of former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has called the snowballing debt “the most predictable crisis we’ve ever had.” The warnings were issued by Ryan and Dimon during a panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Friday.

US government federal debt topped $34 trillion for the first time in history at the end of December. It now amounts to about $102,000 for an average American family of three. In 2023 alone, it grew by more than $4 trillion.

US total public debt is roughly equivalent to the economies of China, Germany, Japan, India, and the UK combined, as pointed out by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan fiscal policy group in New York.

READ MORE: US budget deficit tops half a trillion   

Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the absolute level of US public debt looks like “a scary number.”

“So far, that [the public debt] has been quite manageable,” she said, calling for steps “to make sure that our deficits come down and remain at manageable levels.”

The huge amount is comprised of what the federal government owes to creditors, including individuals, such as citizens and foreign investors, as well as states or large funds. Washington continues to borrow money to cover a budget deficit that has been running for more than 20 years.

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