Jamie Dimon eats humble pie for Thanksgiving

Business & Technology

Jamie Dimon, head of the bank JP Morgan Chase, with a net worth of $1.9 billion, flew last week into Hong Kong, where the government allowed him to stay for a few days without any quarantine measures because of his economic importance to the region’s economy.

Jamie Dimon
But now, I’ll say “Sorry” — JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon speaks at the Boston College Chief Executives Club luncheon, November 23, 2021. REUTERS/Brian Snyder.

Jamie Dimon, head of the bank JP Morgan Chase, with a net worth of $1.9 billion, flew last week into Hong Kong, where the government allowed him to stay for a few days without any quarantine measures because of his economic importance to the region’s economy.

Yesterday, back in the U.S., he joked in a speech to a Boston College group:

“I was just in Hong Kong and I made a joke that the Communist Party is celebrating its hundredth year. So is JP Morgan. I’d make you a bet we last longer,” Mr. Dimon said Tuesday, according to a video recording viewed by The Wall Street Journal

“I can’t say that in China. They probably are listening anyway,” the 65-year-old chief executive added, while laughing.

He apologized today for his quip, the Journal reports, saying, “I regret and should not have made that comment. I was trying to emphasize the strength and longevity of our company.”

But Dimon may have to continue groveling to avoid political trouble in China: State-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times tweeted a photo of Vladimir Putin raising a champagne glass, a link to a Bloomberg story about Dimon’s joke, and the following, rather threatening message:

Be healthy! We wish you good health. We say so without any irony.