- Hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman asked JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon what he’d do if he were president.
- One point on Dimon’s agenda: Tax the rich.
- The CEO said he’d get rid of the carried interest loophole and increase the earned income tax credit.
What would one of the most powerful billionaire CEOs do if he were president? Tax people like himself — and his fellow billionaires — more.
At the New York Times DealBook Summit this morning, audience member and hedge fund titan Bill Ackman asked JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon what he’d do if he were president.
“It’s your first hundred days, what are your top 10 things and what do you do over the first year?” asked Ackman, who has previously called on Dimon to run for president.
“The first thing is I’d probably have a cabinet with really smart, talented brainy people — you might be secretary of Treasury,” Dimon quipped back, adding that the group would include both Republicans and Democrats, before getting more specific on policy.
He would tackle foreign policy, he said, and “double down on diplomacy.” Domestically, education, work skills, and immigration would top his list.
And then, characteristically, he’d focus on growing the economy.
“I think presidents should have a growth strategy,” he said. “Growing the economy is being conducive to business. When I go to France and the UK now, and meet the president and prime minister, it’s pro-growth, innovation, proper taxation for the people of the country.”
Dimon’s tax strategy sounds a lot like wealth redistribution.
He said he would double the earned income tax credit, a credit for low-earning workers, and make it so those without children can also qualify more easily.
“That would put more money into those communities, and they would help their kids,” he said. “I would do that tomorrow.”
In turn, he’d play Robin Hood and increase taxes on the rich.
“‘I’d make people like you pay a little bit more,” he added, turning to Ackman. “This carried interest stuff would be gone the day I got in office because it is unfair.”
The carried interest loophole allows partners in venture capital firms, private equity firms, and hedge funds — a number of whom were likely in the audience at the summit — to pay little in taxes on their earnings. For his part, Ackman has criticized the loophole before, calling it a “stain on the tax code.”
Dimon has blasted tax breaks in the past — like those the wealthy get on race cars, private jets, and horse racing — and called for raising taxes on high earners.
Despite votes of confidence from the likes of Ackman, Dimon has said that he won’t run for president. (And of course, the president can’t enforce tax-code changes anyway without the support of Congress). Still, he often gets political in his annual shareholder letters, commenting on issues from government intervention to healthcare.
