Jamie Dimon Draws a Bernie Sanders Taunt by Knocking Socialism

Jamie Dimon Draws a Bernie Sanders Taunt by Knocking Socialism

(Bloomberg) -- Senator Bernie Sanders lashed out at Jamie Dimon on Twitter after the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. criticized socialism during an appearance in Washington.

Dimon, speaking at a Business Roundtable event on Wednesday, said giving the government control of companies allows them to be used for political purposes, leading to deterioration. He said it would be a “huge mistake” for the U.S. to go down that path.

The Vermont lawmaker, a 2020 presidential contender who calls himself a socialist, shot back.

“I didn’t hear Jamie Dimon criticizing socialism when Wall Street begged for the largest federal bailout in American history—some $700 billion from the Treasury and even more from the Fed,” he wrote on Twitter.

Read more: Bernie Sanders defends ‘socialism’ against Republican attacks

Dimon has previously said JPMorgan, which expanded during the crisis by acquiring collapsing rivals, didn’t need a bailout to survive. In 2012, he told the Senate his firm temporarily accepted money from a Treasury Department program because “we were asked to” so weaker rivals could tap it without being singled out.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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