Here’s something fun to think about.
Last Wednesday, as the markets plunged faster than Boeing stock loaded into a Boeing aircraft, a panicky President Trump got it in his head that he had to talk to someone who knew what the actual fuck was going on, instead of the confederacy of yahoos that he has working in his White House economics shop.
So, according to multiple reports, POTUS called into a meeting that Steve Mnuchin was having with Jamie Dimon, Michael Corbat and Brian Moynihan to ask the heads of the big banks what the hell was happening. Clearly no one in the Trump administration has the foggiest fucking clue who’s running Wells Fargo these days.
But what was said? What did the president learn?
The president asked the three men to give him a read on the health of the U.S. consumer, according to one of the people. The executives responded that the consumer is doing well, but that they could be doing even better if issues including the China-U.S. trade war were resolved, this person said.
The CEOs also told Trump that the trade dispute is damaging the outlook for capital spending by corporations, according to another person with knowledge of the discussions. The president was receptive to the notion that uncertainty over trade is hurting corporate confidence, this person said.
Well, sure, “receptive to the notion” is a fun phrase, until you fast forward to the weekend when Crazy Old Coot and actual White House economic advisor Peter Navarro goes on CNN and reminds everyone of his batshit opinion that the tariffs on Chinese goods aren’t harming American consumers and that American farmers are directly benefitting from the trade war because they’re getting a bunch of the money that the government is taking in from the tariffs [ed note: none of the things he said are true because Navarro is unginged]. So we would argue that the president wasn’t receptive at all to the CEOs thoughts on China and trade.
What else did the captains of finance tell Trump that he might actually act on?
They also talked about the Federal Reserve and the global economic slowdown that has central banks around the world moving to ease monetary conditions, this person said. One opinion batted around during the call: A 25 basis point cut by the Fed won’t likely change capital flows in the markets.
This one should stick. We already look forward to Trump tweeting that “Jamie Dimon, Brian Irish, and the other one have told me that Slow Jay Powell (who I should never have hired) needs to cut interest rates by 10 points “at least” so we can compete and continue being great! These are the big bankers and what they say goes!”
So, in summation: The president wasted the time of bank CEOs on a critical trading day, Jamie Dimon regrets not being president, Peter Navarro is an existential threat to the American economy, and Wells Fargo is no longer relevant at all.
Happy Monday!
Trump called the CEOs of the biggest US banks on Wednesday as the stock market plunged [CNBC]