Jamie Dimon: We do all that [ represent companies], because we have a...

Part of the concept of the euro zone was to establish a common market. The banks were going to bank across all their countries like we bank across states. But that concept got killed for a whole bunch of reasons that I won't get into. That was a good concept, by the way. It may yet return, because there are huge economies of scale in banking. That's another thing people don't quite get.

Jamie Dimon

banking country people

But in general, as countries get wealthier, there's going to be more savings, which means you're going to have intermediation. So part of it is just the huge growth in wealth, and part of it was globalization - these companies, these clients getting much bigger and much more global.

Jamie Dimon

growth mean country

Banks don't want certain asset classes, and that's created opportunities for private equity, hedge funds, Silicon Valley. In this case I think he was referring to some of the European banks shedding assets, and the big buyers are probably not going to be big American banks. Someone like Blackstone may have a very good chance to buy those assets, leverage them, borrow up a little bit, and do something good there.

Jamie Dimon

class opportunity thinking

Acting like everyone who's been successful is bad and because you're rich you're bad, I don't understand it.

Jamie Dimon

rich acting successful

All our clients know that we're there, we're steady, we do a good job, we earn a fair return for ourselves, which I think is critical.

Jamie Dimon

return jobs thinking

We got a lot of excellent people and businesses from Bear and WaMu. But Bear definitely was more painful. WaMu got us into Florida, California, and other states, which was a huge benefit - to expand and grow and add middle-market, private banking, investment banking, and other products, too.

Jamie Dimon

florida california people

A democracy is a compromise by its nature. It's not a dictatorship.

Jamie Dimon

democracy dictatorship compromise

They'll [China] probably be a fully developed nation. The road there just is not going to be that easy. You're going from a macromanaged, top-down economy to a market-managed, micromanaged type of economy, with all the potential corruption issues, SOE [state-owned enterprise] reform, and market reform that come with it.

Jamie Dimon

top-down issues reform

The yen is trading where it's trading because people are guessing about people's future interest rates, dollar and yen and about the future growth potential of the economies. And, if this policy works, then the yen will probably strengthen.

Jamie Dimon

guessing growth people

If I ran the whole place like it was my way or the highway, we would not be as good a company. I'm going to have mistakes - they'll be made on my watch and will embarrass me. But I'll also make sure the company learns from them so it can become a better company.

Jamie Dimon

mistake watches way

You cannot prove this in real time, but when economists 20 years from now write a book on the recovery, it may well be entitled, It could have been much better.

Jamie Dimon

recovery real book

Economies of scale are a good thing. If we didn't have them, we'd still be living in tents and eating buffalo.

Jamie Dimon

buffalo tents eating

You don't run a business hoping you don't have a recession.

Jamie Dimon

banking recessions running

It's good for America when the rest of the world grows, because you can sell more to the rest of the world.

Jamie Dimon

grows america world

As a matter of fact 25% of our U.S. investment banking business comes out of our commercial bank. So it's a competitive advantage for both the investment bank - which gets a huge volume of business - and the commercial bank because the commercial bank can walk into a company and say, "Oh, if you need X, Y and Z in Japan or China, we can do that for you."

Jamie Dimon

commercial-banks japan needs

The term "too big to fail" must be excised from our vocabulary.

Jamie Dimon

vocabulary failing motivational

Banks also have to say no to customers. We can't always give clients what they want; it may not be in the client's best interest.

Jamie Dimon

want may giving

It's offensive to me to be called a cost cutter.

Jamie Dimon

cutters offensive cost

The transaction reflects our disciplined strategy of investing capital in core businesses where we can leverage scale and expertise for competitive advantage. In addition to being a great strategic fit, the deal is compelling financially.

Jamie Dimon

investing strategy fit

My guess is the big Chinese banks will be in 100 countries by then. They will have very sophisticated operations, and they may very well have bought banks around the world in countries that allow it. I mean, I don't think the American government would allow them to buy JPMorgan. But they will be able to buy a sizable big bank in the U.S. at some point. Whether they do or not, or if it's allowed or not, I don't know.

Jamie Dimon

mean country thinking

We do all that [ represent companies], because we have a lot of research in Japanese companies, and that research educates investors around the world. It allows us to sell stocks and bonds in Japanese companies.