JPMorgan’s Dimon on US Recovery and the European Central Bank

In an interview with CNBC yesterday, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase said the United States is currently going through a “mild recovery,” that is “broad and strengthening.”

“When you look at all the sectors- corporate, middle market, business, consumer,” he continued, “for the most part theu’re better than they were a year ago, and we even think housing is near the bottom if you look at rental prices, supply and demand, household formation. So I hope we have a growing economy.”

He added that banks “have a lot of issues sitting on them right now including Europe, which may be the largest of them. We would like to see Europe solve its problems.”

The European Central Bank’s recently instituted three-year-deposit facility “removed a lot of issues about liquidity.” However, in order to make real progress, the Bank should be combining efforts with the EU to resolve the region’s financial crises.

“It’s fair for the ECB to say this is not our issue, it’s a government issue,” Dimon said. He went on to say, though, that the European Union could come back with the valid claim that they need the Bank’s help when it comes to liquidity for sovereign debt in countries like Italy and Spain. Dimon stressed the importance of acting immediately, before the situation spirals further out of control.