CNBC
- Russia defeating Ukraine could spark chaos and slam the global economy, Jamie Dimon said.
- The JPMorgan CEO said a Putin victory could fuel a nuclear arms race and trigger more battles.
- Dimon warned US-China tensions and wars in Europe and the Middle East threaten the world order.
A Russian victory in Ukraine could throw the world into disarray, transform the global economy, and trigger nuclear proliferation and further conflicts, Jamie Dimon warned.
"It could be a potential disaster," the JPMorgan CEO told The Wall Street Journal this week.
Dimon emphasized that Russia has invaded a free, democratic nation and threatened nuclear war to deter resistance.
"We've never had nuclear blackmail before, which is also teaching the whole world that maybe having nuclear weapons is a pretty good thing because people will be afraid of you — you can abuse a neighbor if you feel like it," he said.
The boss of America's biggest bank cautioned that if Russia conquers Ukraine, other countries may question whether they can rely on the US to defend them from military assaults, or to have their back on the "economic battlefield," Dimon said.
Governments worldwide will reassess the security of their food, energy, and other critical resources, and might decide to partner with other countries, he added.
"I'm a little worried that if Russia wins that war, you're going to see the world enter a little bit of chaos as people realign alliances and economic relationships."
The billionaire banker has been sounding the alarm on the tumultuous global environment for a while.
"The geopolitical situation is probably the most complicated and dangerous since World War II," he told the Economic Club of New York this week, adding that the world order is being "challenged."
In his annual letter to JPMorgan shareholders this month, Dimon pointed to the wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, the US and China clashing over issues like trade, and the recent spike in terrorist attacks as evidence that a historically "treacherous" era may have begun.
In a September interview, Dimon flagged the Russia-Ukraine war as the greatest threat to the world, and said countries were worrying about relying on other countries for everything from food and energy to microchips and rare-earth metals.
He added that the battle could be an "inflection point for the free democratic world," and said there's "no playbook" for navigating the current geopolitical melee.