Why Wall Street is anxious over Dimon's recovery amid COVID-19: RPT
New York Post Finance Reporter Thornton McEnery joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discuss his new report about why some on Wall Street are nervous about the market turmoil while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recovers from heart surgery that has him on bed rest.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: And as we continue to look back at how it's impacting the economy in a way we haven't seen since 2008, you might be asking yourself, where is a key figure of the way that we got through that crisis? Of course, being Jamie Dimon. I want to bring in our next guest who's been tracking that. Of course, he is dealing with some health issues right now.
But Thornton McEnery, New York Post finance reporter and friend of the show, has been looking into why it might be a calming presence out there as Wall Street deals with all this. And Thornton, Jamie Dimon had heart surgery, so I guess, you know, he can't-- he can't help out right now.
THORTON MCENERY: No, Jamie took a-- he picked a really inopportune time to have emergency heart surgery. Yeah, it's-- he's from [INAUDIBLE]. We're hearing he's, you know, he's at home recuperating from, you know, a substantially important heart surgery. So yeah, he's-- he's resting. It was our understanding he is Zooming some JPM stuff.
And there's other people who have told us that he's reached out. He's made phone calls. He's staying aware.
But, yeah, he's not on CNBC. He's not in Washington. He's not doing the things that Jamie usually does, being out their, calming markets, sort of telling Treasury Secretary what he thinks he should do, the Fed what they should do. Yeah, he's sort of the guy.
He's sort of the crux player between the street, D.C., and the media. And [INAUDIBLE] hard-- hard to find a replacement for him. No one else has experience. No one else has run the biggest bank in the country for-- for 15 years. But so yeah, without Jamie it seems the vacuum is pretty hard to fill.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Thorton, it's Brian Cheung here. So we've seen that Gordon Smith has kind of stepped up as the interim. He was the one that went down to Washington D.C. when Trump convened all those big bank CEOs. But there's been a lot of kind of flip-flopping in the JP hierarchy with Jen Piepszak and Marianne Lake.
I mean, as far as succession goes, should we start to think about who's going to be next? Who's kind of been playing the-- the point person with Jamie in the hospital?
THORTON MCENERY: I mean, this has been, what, are we in year 7 of the game of who's going to replace Jamie? I mean, half-- I mean, 80% of the people we've talked about are no longer there, like Matt Zames, like names pop into my head. I mean, I think right now, we have-- the theory was Lake or Piepszak.
Now, maybe in a battlefield promotion, we're back to the Dan Pinto, Gordon Brown thing. But I think, yeah, I think there is a question of now succession. You know, but I mean Jamie [INAUDIBLE] cancer a few years ago, and he came back more concerted than ever to stay in his role. Maybe this will be the same thing.
But yeah, I think the idea of who is going to take over, and it sounds like Gordon has been the face of JP Morgan now. So even Washington, [INAUDIBLE] maybe even running things back home. But yeah, who knows? I mean, I think that's still a question, who the board will step in because, essentially, the board has been very much responsive to Jamie's whims for years. But yeah, I think we're back now playing the parlor game of who will take over for Jamie.
ZACK GUZMAN: And we'll have to see what happens there as things potentially get a little bit more volatile moving forward and whether or not he comes back. But hoping his recovery is going well for now. Thorton McEnery, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it, man.
THORTON MCENERY: Thank you guys. See you soon.
