Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co, speaks in New York, USA on September 25, 2019.
Mischa Friedman | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is regularly asked where he sees the biggest threats to the global economy – and to humanity in general. At a panel discussion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the veteran financier emphasized the seriousness of nuclear proliferation, which he ranked ahead of climate change and other widespread threats.
“I hear people talk about ESG all the time,” Dimon said Tuesday, referring to the environmental, social and governance concerns and mandates for governments and companies.
“I just want to tell you that the greatest threat to humanity is nuclear proliferation. If we’re not sitting here in 100 years, it will be nuclear proliferation. This is not our climate.”
International bodies and proliferation experts warn that the risk of using nuclear weapons is higher than it has been in decades, given wars involving nuclear powers like Russia and weaker compliance with international nuclear treaties.
“The risk of nuclear weapons use is currently higher than at any time since the depths of the Cold War,” the United Nations wrote in a statement in March 2023.
It says that the war between Russia and Ukraine represents “the most acute example of this risk” and that “the lack of dialogue and the erosion of the disarmament and arms control architecture, combined with dangerous rhetoric and veiled threats, are the main causes.” potentially existential risk.”
Russia, meanwhile, is revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace calls “one of the most consequential international treaties for global security.”
The CTBT, opened for signature in 1996, bans “any nuclear weapons test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world. It has been signed by 187 nations and ratified by 178, but cannot officially enter into force until 44 specific countries have ratified it, including China, the United States, North Korea, India, Israel and Iran. Yet no country except North Korea has conducted nuclear tests since the CTBT was opened for signature.
Iran, meanwhile, has increased its uranium enrichment in recent years to what the International Atomic Energy Agency says are “alarming” levels, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has vowed to develop nuclear weapons for his country if Iran does so. which sparked fears of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
In early October, Dimon said in a statement accompanying JPMorgan’s earnings release that “this may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”
In addition to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Dimon – as he did in Riyadh – pointed to rising national debt and “the largest peacetime budget deficits ever.”
“I’ve been an optimist in general,” Dimon said on the panel, but added: “I think it would be foolish not to look at some of these things that are happening in Ukraine and the Middle East today – obviously my heart goes out for Ukraine, but it also impacts oil, food, food prices, gas prices, migration and possible famine – it is probably the worst we have ever seen.”
Source : www.cnbc.com