CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon said Thursday that short-selling bank stocks should be banned, and short-sellers of said stocks should be prosecuted.
Dimon made the comment during an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday morning after being pushed on queries about the “catastrophic” risk of the debt ceiling being reached. Instead, he pivoted to talk about the banking crisis and risk of the recession, and what he would do if he were Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s shoes right now.
“I don’t know,” Dimon answered, but went on to argue that every major federal agency and organization related to the economy should be doing whatever they need to do to “make it better.” He noted that regional banks are quite strong, and their financial results over the next quarter should be positive.
Still, he was pushed by Bloomberg for a comprehensive solution to the banking crisis. “Just be prepared for problems.” he responded. “Do we need regulators to look at short sellers of banks?” Bloomberg asked.
“Yes … my folks would tell me that that’s not the problem, that short selling banks, if you actually analyze stocks in short sales, it’s not a big deal. I think they may partially be wrong, because, as you know, some people are unscrupulous and they use other means to go short,” he replied. “I think that if you look at the detail, the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] has the enforcement capability to look at what people are doing by name in a options, derivatives, short sales, and … if someone’s doing anything wrong, people in collusion or people going short and making a tweet about a bank, they should go after them.”
Dimon said that the SEC should be going after people who do this vigorously, and that they should be prosecuted to the full extent that the law allows. (RELATED: Financial Expert Explains Why The Economy Is Collapsing In One Perfect Tweet)
Short sellers have already come under fire since the start of May, according to Reuters. The demographic of traders made $1.2 billion in the first two days of May as the banking crisis continues amid runaway inflation and general international chaos.
You can watch his full interview here: