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The Fitch Ratings downgrade of the United States’ long-term credit rating ultimately doesn’t matter, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC on Wednesday.
“It doesn’t really matter that much” because it is the market, and not rating agencies, that determine borrowing costs, Dimon told CNBC’s Leslie Picker.
Still, it is “ridiculous” that countries including Canada have higher credit ratings than the U.S. when they depend on the stability created by the U.S. and its military, Dimon added.
“To have them be triple-A and not America is kind of ridiculous,” Dimon said. “It’s still the most prosperous nation on the planet, it’s the most secure nation in the planet.”
Fitch downgraded the country’s rating to AA+ from AAA on Tuesday, pointing to “expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years,” an erosion of governance and a growing general debt burden.
The agency put the U.S. rating on watch in May after members of Congress butted heads over raising the debt ceiling and brought the country to near-default.
“We should get rid of the debt ceiling,” Dimon said. “It’s used by both parties” in ways that sow uncertainty for markets, he said.
In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon touched on topics including geopolitics, bank regulation, artificial intelligence and the direction of the economy.
The U.S. economy is being supported by consumer and business strength, low unemployment and healthy balance sheets, he said.
“It’s pretty good, even if we go into recession,” Dimon said. “The storm cloud part is still there,” he added, referring to a warning he gave last year on the economy.
What worries Dimon most are the geopolitical risks created by the Ukraine war and the Federal Reserve’s effort to rein in its balance sheet known as quantitative tightening, he said.
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