It is a sign of the radically changed times when Jamie Dimon, one of the most prominent advocates for US free-market capitalism, throws his weight behind Donald Trump’s interventionist “America First” industrial policy.
“You need America to be very, very strong to secure global security,” JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive said, explaining the bank’s new “Security and Resiliency Initiative”, a $1.5tn, 10-year plan to support critical US industries. The plan adds as much as $500bn to an existing $1tn strategy to facilitate and finance clients in areas such as advanced manufacturing, defence, quantum computing and battery storage. It includes up to $10bn of direct equity and venture capital investments.
On the surface, it makes business sense for Dimon to align his rhetoric with Trump’s, just as it did for CEOs to pay lip-service to environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals supported by Joe Biden and Barack Obama. In reality, though, companies run risks when they shackle hard investment strategy too closely to any government’s favourite policy initiatives.