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Simon English: Dimon's happy to wait for a eurozone solution

Simon English
Friday 27 January 2012 01:00 GMT
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Outlook: Jamie Dimon's interview with CNBC from Davos yesterday was an almost complete rebuke of Mr Cameron's speech. Greece missing loan payments won't be so bad, the JP Morgan chief told the TV channel, don't sweat it.

"The direct impact of a Greek default is almost zero," Mr Dimon said. "There's a teeny chance of a catastrophic outcome, which is why the muddle-through is the only good strategy. There is no other good strategy."

The European Central Bank has more or less played a blinder, Mr Dimon argues. Its long-term refinancing operation in December had taken the bank liquidity problem off the table in Europe, he said.

"Unravelling the euro is a terrible thing," he went on.

"This is a 50-year endeavour to get this continent together and that's a wonderful endeavour. And now they run into a bump in the road..."

Mr Dimon is far from a policy wimp. In fact, he's almost a parody of a swaggering, Wall Street banker, telling staff he wants the competition "to bleed" and infamously marching up to a woman at a party to inform her that she was living with him (she did).

If he can wait for a eurozone solution, surely the rest of us can.

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