President Barack Obama is currently looking to replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Everybody’s favorite billionaire investor Warren Buffett thinks that the best person to lead the Treasury Department during the financial crisis is none other than the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, Mr. Jamie Dimon.
It is believed that Dimon is not one of the potential candidates in the running for this fantastic position in the cabinet, but it’s also not the first time that this banker on Wall Street has been recommended for the job.
“If we run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” said Buffett during an interview that he had with Charlie Rose that aired on PBS this past Monday night. “World leaders would have confidence in him.”
It is currently believed that Jack Lew is the leading candidate to replace Tim Geithner. He is the former director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the current White House Chief of Staff.
There are a few others that are possibly under consideration as well. Some of the names floating around are Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock; Roger Altman, chairman of Evercore; and Gary Gensler, current chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and former partner at Goldman Sachs.
Dimon has the reputation of being a safe and savvy banker, although that reputation took a little bit of a hit this year during the entire London Whale trading debacle. So far, this error cost J.P. Morgan $6.2 billion.
“Obviously, you know, there was a failure of control,” said Buffett to PBS when discussing the trading losses. “If you run an army, if you run a church, if you run a government, any large institution, people will go off the reservation sometimes.”
There was a time when Dimon was looked upon as a friendly Wall Street executive to the administration. But he has recently criticized the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul championed by President Obama, and he’s also criticized some of the policies implemented by the Federal Reserve.
As of this time, Geithner is leading the negotiations in regards to the fiscal cliff. He is expected to leave his post once a potential deal is reached.