JAMIE Dimon, boss of America’s largest bank JP Morgan Chase, has issued a stark warning to his investors that the world may be facing ‘the most dangerous time … in decades’ as a result of increasing ‘geo-political tensions’.
Dimon was speaking as JP Morgan Chase revealed that in the three months up to September this year the bank reported £10.7 billion in profit – an increase of 35% from the same period in 2022.
Despite this record increase in profits, Jamie Dimon is clearly a very worried banker.
He told his investors that what he feared was that the imperialist war against Russia in the Ukraine and now the drive by the US, UK and Israel to try to re-impose imperialism in the Middle East, will hit the world capitalist economy by driving up energy and food prices and strangle global trade.
He told his investors that they should be prepared to face higher interest rates and persistent inflation, along with other ‘fall-outs’ from conflicts.
He said: ‘The war in Ukraine compounded by last week’s attacks on Israel may have far-reaching impacts on energy and food markets, global trade, and geopolitical relationships.’ He added: ‘This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.’
Dimon’s fears were echoed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it concluded its bi-annual meeting in Morocco at the weekend.
Referring to the barbaric war launched by Israel to smash Hamas and take over the Gaza Strip, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire told the Financial Times: ‘If we are facing any escalation or extension of the conflict to the whole region we will face big consequences.’
Kristalina Georgieva, head of the IMF, warned of a ‘new cloud on the sunniest horizon for the global economy’ after a week when the IMF was stretched to find any sunny spots for global capitalism.
What the bankers and IMF crave above all else is stability – stability for them to make massive profits while the working class and masses of the world are forced to quietly accept having their lives destroyed for the greater good of capitalism.
This outlook was enshrined in the ‘Abraham Accords’ initiated by Donald Trump in 2020. These accords were a set of diplomatic normalisation agreements between Israel and regional Arab countries to create a unified imperialist bloc against Iran and guarantee stability in the region for its vast oil and gas reserves to be plundered and looted by global capitalism.
These accords would ‘solve’ the struggle of Palestinians against Zionist occupation by simply ignoring Palestinians, dismissing them as an irrelevance.
Just days before Hamas launched the ‘surprise attack’ that ended the myth of Israeli invincibility, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan publicly stated that ‘the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades’.
The attempt to impose stability through the Abraham Accords has been shattered by the Palestinians refusing to be treated as disposable trash by world imperialism.
Not even the most reactionary Arab regime dares risking the wrath of the Arab masses by supporting the murder of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.
The illusion of imposing stability through diplomacy has been discarded, as the US sends two aircraft carriers into the region while the UK has promised two Royal Navy ships to support crushing Hamas and prepare a military campaign to take over Iran and bring that country and its oil wealth back under the domination of imperialism.
The bankers and the IMF are right to be terrified of the consequences of an impending imperialist war that will set the Middle East ablaze and drive the cost-of-living for workers in the US, UK and Europe even further through the roof, while plunging capitalism even further into recession and economic depression.
Workers, the Palestinians and the masses of the world face a common enemy in a bankrupt capitalist system that is desperately attempting to survive through a war on two fronts – to impose its domination on the world while at the same time war at home to force the working class to pay the cost of war and recession.
The only solution is for the workers of the world to unite to smash capitalism and go forward to the victory of the world socialist revolution.
