Jamie Dimon Slams Wealth Inequality But Won’t Talk About His $31 Million Paycheck

Topline: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon admitted in a recent interview that wealth inequality is a big problem in the U.S., but while the billionaire again criticized Warren and others for going after the rich, he noticeably avoided questions about his own hefty salary last year.

• Amid the heated criticism of billionaires by Democratic candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Jamie Dimon again weighed in on the debate during a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night.
• Himself a billionaire, worth $1.6 billion according to Forbes, Dimon called the growing wealth gap in the U.S. “a huge problem.”
• “I think the wealthy have been getting wealthier too much in many ways, so middle class incomes have been kind of flat for maybe 15 years or so, and that’s not particularly good in America,” Dimon said.
• While the JPMorgan Chase CEO says he’s worried about wealth inequality, he again criticized Warren for going after billionaires: “I think you should vilify Nazis, but you shouldn’t vilify people who’ve worked hard to accomplish things,” he said in the Sunday interview.
• When asked by host Lesley Stahl about his own $31 million paycheck in 2018, Diimon avoided the question, saying that the bank’s board of directors determines his salary and “I have nothing to do with it.”
• When Stahl suggested Dimon “could return some of it,” he deflected, instead responding, “Is that gonna solve any of those problems?”

Big numbers: A recent Credit Suisse report shows that millionaires now own 44% of the world’s wealth, while the bottom half of the world’s population account for less than 1%.

Tangent: Under Elizabeth Warren’s new calculator, which shows how much each billionaire would need to pay under her proposed wealth tax, Dimon would shell out $55 million a year. 

Key background: Dimon had first weighed in on the Warren-billionaires debate about wealth last week, when he reprimanded Warren for using “harsh words” that “vilifies successful people.” With the 2020 election drawing nearer, several billionaires and much of Wall Street have increasingly gone after Elizabeth Warren, whom they perceive as a threat to big business. Numerous billionaires, starting with Leon Cooperman, have spoken out against her criticism of the ultrarich and her proposed wealth tax on billionaires. Others have followed suit, from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to hedge fund billionaires like Paul Tudor Jones and Steve Cohen. Several billionaires have even predicted that if Warren got elected, the stock market would crash anywhere between 10% and 40%.