31 Comments

Funny, I had the exact same reaction to his opening... and then his list (I'm a HS English teacher. The style of this op-ed is annoyingly familiar). I thought of John Oliver's interview response to a Far Righter: "Could you be more generic?"

And frankly, I think even his good ideas are in there as fluff adorning his main assertion: the dumbest one; the one you took apart.

It comes off as a Tech Bro party brag task. One SO important, he didn't even bother to ask an intern-level human to write it.

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It is a 5-point program or 10-point program style of writing from boring history text books in India and former USSR that I’ve had to read, study and prepare with for rote exams.

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Interesting. I wasn't aware, but it makes sense (and I've proofread writers from those places and former Warsaw Pact who emulate similar). But it's also eerily similar, in terms of its glittering generalities and syntax, to the kinds of things my kids churn out with ChapGPT, and think I can't tell right away (although, if this was AI-written, it had some degree training in its instructions). The only things missing were "rich tapestries," and mentioning "complexity" about six times.

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He’s the same guy who was leaning Trump versus Biden, so I have zero respect for him. And would Trump do any of these things you listed anyway? Lol nope the Republicans are NOT fans of EITC or child tax credits. So welp. And would Democrats be boosting EITC and expansion child tax credits? Yes! They’ve tried repeatedly, including just this past week.

Good old Manchin and Sinema, thinking that clinging to the 60 votes filibuster cudgel is more important and more noble than dropping the filibuster and supporting children with an expanded and monthly child tax credit payments! Is amazing that they think that all they need to do is negotiate more! As if the party of Trump have proven itself to want to uplift children, not merely grossly inflate the paychecks of the richest Americans!

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“This raises the obvious question: why did Dimon write this pile of meaningless crap? I suspect the answer is, “because he can.” Last year I also wrote, “I have no doubt that Dimon’s friends and peers are telling him and telling everyone what a neato candidate and great president he would make. That is because, as I noted in The Ideas Industry, that almost no one can speak truth to money.” Dimon’s entourage as well as the editors at the Post likely showered him with praise with this effort. “

This gets an A+.

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Dimon thinks the government “needs more people with business experience”?!

Have you been so busy counting your money these last 10 years that you missed the (failed but loud) “business” guy who (I still can’t believe it) was in the White House lining his own pocket and alienating allies and literally killing half a million of YOUR fellow citizens??

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Rebecca and Robert said it all. I can never erase Dimon’s support of Trump from my mind. How low can one go. Another rich white guy groveling for the big prize.

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The piece did have an extremely lively comments section. I’ll give it that. 😁

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One does wonder: Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan have enormous resources. You'd think they could find the best writer and/or policy mind to write this. What this demonstrates is how inflexible and unimaginative the private sector is.

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Mr. Simon sounds unaware that the private sector already plays a huge role in the formation and implementation of public policy simply by lobbying, and, as you note, filling myriad positions in every presidential administration, thanks to the well-lubricated revolving door connecting the public and private sectors. And did I already mention the right of political "speech" corporations enjoy, thanks to Citizens United and related decisions, that allows businesses and their employees to finance the campaigns of numerous public officials at all levels of federal, state, and local government? (I haven't even gotten to the "friendships" business folks cultivate with public officials like Justice Clarence "RV" Thomas.)

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Clarence “RV” Thomas.. 👏 bravo 👏

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I promise I will read your entire Substack post but I absolutely cringed when I saw the phrase "inflection point". That term is so overused I actually saw an amateur DC soccer team that called itself the "Inflection Points".

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I spit-laughed at Dimon's last suggestion. So utterly predictable. I'm OK with business having a seat at the table, but so should employees as well as consumers/community have a seat at the table, including in the corporate board room.

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I'm always amused by the people who think we need more businessman/woman presidents. One could make the case that the most successful businessmen to rise to the Oval Office are Hoover, Carter, W. Bush, and Trump -- not exactly a murderer's row of presidential success.

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I’m always angered. These are the same people who break up government services and hand them over to for-profit companies.

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Yep -- running government like a business is such a monumentally dumb idea with goals that are almost the exact opposite of what government is supposed to do.

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Too many people from the business world think they can do a much better job of running the country than experienced public servants from government. On the occasions they do get appointed to public office, they inevitably find out that governing is much harder than they thought.

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« Teach American exceptionalism without papering over our mistakes »; also: « square the circle. »

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So a CEO writes a mayo-on-mayo sandwich? I think this demonstrates that for the very wealthy, there's not only a Dunning-Kruger Effect, but a Dunning-Kruggerand Effect.

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Dimon reads like the latest instance of what has become a depressingly common phenomenon in the Musk/Thiel/Tump era - a rich man’s unshakeable belief that his wealth makes him knowledgeable, special, and uniquely important, and that he must therefore burden us with his views. This is perhaps unsurprising, but what’s really pathetic is the willingness of a supine press and public to submit.

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At last we agree on something, Dan. After he had kind words to say about Trump, I ran a comment on my own blog, to wit: Shorter Jamie Dimon: You’re calling me a “whore”? I prefer the term “businessman”.

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