Browsing the 2025 National Portrait Gallery Honorees I was saddened but not surprised to see this laudatory description of one Jamie Dimon
Jamie Dimon has long been a leader in the financial services industry, where his skill in assessing and managing risk has proven to be a defining feature of his career. As chairman of the board and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Dimon has employed a “fortress balance sheet” strategy in which financial strength and resilience are achieved through high liquidity, deep capital reserves, and low debt. The stability gained from this approach enabled Dimon’s firm to successfully weather the 2008 global financial crisis.
Whether JPMorgan Chase’s success in 2008 was due to Dimon’s “fortress balance sheet” strategy or a $25 billion bailout is for someone with more financial sophistication to say.
Dimon at the Gallery. The quoted text is from the bottom right plaque.
Look, I don’t mind that Dimon is there. There is also a bust of John D. Rockefeller a floor above and by all accounts he was an infinitely more sinister character. Not to mention the parade of narcissists — honorable exceptions like 1 and 16 notwithstanding — at the American Presidents exhibit. But note the brazenness of portraying a champion of financialization in a positive light in the context of the 2008 financial crisis. Is it a they-know-that-we-know-that-they-know situation or are people writing the text truly that clueless?
Which now makes me doubt every each and every one of those captions. Next thing you know they’ll commission Steven Spielberg’s wife Kate Capshaw to do his NPG portrait without mentioning in the text that they have been married for 30-plus years!