Jamie Dimon says an ‘evil axis’ of countries threatening war is the biggest risk to the world economy in the next century

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that investors are overlooking a key risk that could significantly weaken the global economy and stock markets over the next century.

It’s not inflation, a recession, or AI taking over humanity; rather, it’s rising geopolitical tensions that have already flared up into armed conflicts around the world.

“Geopolitics is getting worse, they are not getting better. There is chance for accidents in energy supply. God knows if other countries get involved. You have a lot of war taking place right now,” Dimon told CNBC-TV18 during a visit to India on Tuesday.

The rising geopolitical tension is Dimon’s “biggest caution” and dwarfs all other visible risks to the economy. Dimon is especially worried about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

In an interview last week at the 2024 Financial Markets Quality Conference, Dimon was even sharper in his warning to investors.

“The most important thing that dwarfs all other things, that’s really important, far more important today than it’s been probably since 1945, is this war in Ukraine, what’s going on in Israel in the Middle East, America’s relation with China, and the attack fundamentally on the rule of law that was set up after World War II,” Dimon said.

Dimon continued, noting that an “evil axis” of countries threatens global economic stability.

“It’s threat of nuclear blackmail. Iran, North Korea, and Russia I think you can legitimately call an evil axis. They’re working every day on how to make it worse for the Western world and for America,” Dimon said.

He added: “This may affect the free and democratic world for the next 100 years and I think that’s the most important thing. I think people overly focus on a soft landing, hard landing, honestly most of us have been through all of that stuff, it doesn’t matter as much.”

As for China, while Dimon said it doesn’t see them as part of the evil axis, he does believe they are on the “wrong side” of the global tensions.

China has increased its trade with Russia since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, and they have friendly economic ties with Iran.

Ultimately, what’s bad for the global economy is also bad for stock markets.

Dimon said that if geopolitical tensions elevate to instability and conflict, it will drag down the stock market in a way that pales in comparison to prior market crashes.

“If it really goes south, obviously it will affect markets like you’ve never seen,” Dimon warned.

The antidote to the problem, according to Dimon, is strong leadership.

“It takes really strong American leadership and Western world leadership to do something about it,” Dimon said.