The Jamie Dimon manifesto

• The 2023 shareholder letter from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is chock full of policy ideas.
• Dimon's letter focuses on global peace, rethinking trade alliances, and addressing domestic unrest.
• The CEO proposed policy changes to improve economic equality and bolster the Earned Income Tax Credit.

A robust new policy platform just dropped — and it's not from either leading presidential candidate.

Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JPMorgan Chase, outlined some of the biggest issues facing the company, the country, and the world in his 2023 annual shareholder letter.

Dimon's manifesto touches on everything from AI to geopolitics, and includes a strong emotional appeal to the strength of the US in bringing the West together in a time of global turbulence. Though Dimon's annual letters do usually address policy, this year's is much thicker than usual, an intriguing turn from a consequential business leader who's eyed a future in politics.

For now, Dimon is presenting a suite of policy proposals on how to bolster everything from the US' international influence to improving the lots of America's low-income population. It's a letter that affirms Dimon's views on American exceptionalism, and the ways that policy needs to evolve to drive that vision.

Strength on the world stage, starting with aid for Ukraine

A major theme in Dimon's letter is how important global peace is to furthering America's ambitions, and that the US should use its power and influence to ensure stability.

For example, he points to American leadership as crucial in resolving the war in Ukraine.

"Ukraine's struggle is our struggle," he writes.

In contrast to current Republican demands, Dimon says that Ukraine requires the US's help "immediately," and that it's key to realize that US aid to Ukraine will flow back into the American economy as many of the weapons and equipment used are made in the US.

Overall, he emphasizes the importance of the West needing "unquestioned military might." Like many others, he may have been rattled by Oppenheimer: "Most important, the specter of nuclear weapons — probably still the greatest threat to mankind — hovers as the ultimate decider, which should strike deep fear in all our hearts," Dimon writes.

But he says that the US needs to flex its other muscles of power — economic policy, diplomacy, and intelligence — beyond military strength. And the US also needs to keep its citizenry informed on why it's so important for the US to get involved.

Rethinking global trade alliances

Dimon said that just as the West reimagines its military alliances and strategies, it's time to start doing the same for economics. And that means that while the West perhaps overlooked China at its own peril, it's time to "just fix it." It also means that the US should "thoughtfully" engage with China — sans fear.

"Done properly, such a strategy would help strengthen, coalesce and possibly be the glue that holds together Western democratic alliances over decades," Dimon writes.

He also believes that the US should reenter the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which former President Donald Trump pulled out of early into his tenure in order to instead focus on one-on-one trade.

While Dimon writes that industrial policy has proven to be necessary to bolster industries needed for national security like semiconductors and rare earth minerals, it should have a very limited government role. For example, the government should only be able to touch specific things like tax credits, in his view.

Any industrial policy should have what he calls "twin provisions": Both limitations on political interference, which includes social policies, and improved permitting requirements.

More broadly, Dimon thinks it might be time to have an even larger rethinking of international rules and structure. He envisions this as potentially a new, "reimagined" Bretton Woods — the agreement that originally created the International Monetary Fund.

'The fraying of the American dream'

Dimon identifies two key issues driving domestic unrest — stagnation on border security and "the fraying of the American dream."

He believes that Congress should act on border control and that there should be a push for policies to drive economic growth. He believes that citizens losing trust in the government is "damaging to society," and it's time for action to help the government be able to act quickly and with innovation.

"And to be fair, business could use its influence to do less to further its own interest and more to enhance the nation as a whole," he said.

Dimon points to the growth in wage inequality, saying that "wrong" policy falls disproportionately on the backs of lower-earning Americans. Dimon said that he believes all jobs — even "starter jobs" — should be treated with respect.

He endorses two policy levers to help improve economic equality. First, he believes that educational institutions should be scrutinized on the incomes and job quality of their graduates (or non-graduates). Jobs skills training is paramount to helping close the mismatch between unemployed workers and the roles that are hiring, according to Dimon.

"We already spend a tremendous amount of money on education — just not the right way," Dimon writes.

The other piece of the puzzle Dimon recommends is one that Congress could take up: Bolstering the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a credit aimed at lower-income families that was enhanced under the American Rescue Plan.

In Dimon's vision, that credit would be available to all lower-income workers — without proration for those without children — and turned into a "negative income payroll tax, paid monthly."

That could potentially take the form of monthly checks or a paycheck boost. Dimon previously said that taxes on the wealthy could help offset the costs of bolstering the EITC.

Dimon closes out the policy portion of his letter by reiterating that, while the US has "complex and difficult tasks ahead," he hopes to see a future where the US is able to rise to the challenges facing it.

"I remain with a deep and abiding faith in the strength of the enduring values of America."