(New York Post) - Wall Street boss Jamie Dimon took a veiled swipe at President Biden’s energy policy following OPEC’s decision to cut the global oil supply by some 2% last week.
“Obviously, America needs to play a real leadership role — America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia,” the JPMorgan Chase CEO told CNBC on Monday.
Dimon said the Biden administration dropped the ball by not significantly boosting output at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has roiled energy markets.
“We should have gotten that right starting in March,” according to Dimon. “In my view, America should have been pumping more oil and gas and it should have been supported.”
After weeks of consistent drops, gas prices in the US are on the rise again. The national average of a gallon of regular unleaded fuel was at $3.92 on Monday — which is 12 cents higher than last week and 24 cents more since last month.
Analysts predict the national average will eventually reach $4 in the near future.
The Post has sought comment from the White House.
Dimon, the CEO of the nation’s largest bank and whose net worth has been valued by Forbes at some $1.4 billion, made the comments while interviewed by CNBC’s Julianna Tatelbaum at the JPM Techstars conference in London.
Europe is in the grip of an energy crisis precipitated by Russia’s decision to cut off natural gas supplies to the continent. The Kremlin said the move was in retaliation for sanctions placed on Russia following the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
The energy scarcity in Europe, which imported up to 45% of its natural gas from Russia, has sent prices skyrocketing and forced governments to close energy-intensive factories and impose rationing measures on the population.
Spain and Portugal capped the price of gas used in power generation in June, which has helped curb local power prices.
The idea has gained traction among other countries, although some worry it could raise EU gas demand, since Spain’s gas use increased under the measure.
Dimon said the West must do more to mitigate the crisis, which he calls “critical.”
“We have a longer-term problem now, which is the world is not producing enough oil and gas to reduce coal, make the transition [to green energy], produce security for people,” he said.
Dimon added: “I would put it in the critical category. This should be treated almost as a matter of war at this point, nothing short of that.”
The banking executive compared the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
“It’s Pearl Harbor, it’s Czechoslovakia, and it’s really an attack on the Western world,” Dimon said.
But the JPMorgan boss thinks this is an opportunity for the West to “get our act together.”
“The autocratic world thinks that the Western world is a little lazy and incompetent — and there’s a little bit of truth to that,” said Dimon.
“This is the chance to get our act together and to solidify the Western, free, democratic, capitalist, free people, free movements, freedom of speech, free religion for the next century,” he added.
“Because if we don’t get this one right, that kind of chaos you can see around the world for the next 50 years.”
By Ariel Zilber
October 11, 2022
