Noah Buhayar and Dakin Campbell
Bloomberg
November 27, 2012
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon would be the best person to lead the U.S. Treasury Department in a financial crisis, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said.
“If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” Buffett said in response to a question about Dimon from Charlie Rose, according to the transcript of an interview that was scheduled to air yesterday on PBS. “World leaders would have confidence in him.”
President Barack Obama is seeking to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who had said he planned to step down. Dimon, 56, testified before Congress and shuffled top managers this year after the bank disclosed a loss, now of more than $6.2 billion, stemming from a wrong-way bet on credit derivatives. Buffett has described Dimon’s annual letter to shareholders as a must-read.
“Obviously, you know, there was a failure of control,” Buffett, 82, said to Rose about the trading loss. “If you run an army, if you run a church, if you run a government, any large institution, people will go off the reservation sometimes.”
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!