Jamie Dimon: 'It's Almost An Embarrassment Being An American Citizen'

While JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM beat second-quarter estimates Friday, the numbers come in spite of America’s political gridlock, said CEO Jamie Dimon.

“It’s almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to this stupid sh— we have to deal with in this country,” Dimon said on Chase’s earnings call, according to a transcript posted on Twitter.

The country has grown at 1.5–2 percent annually “in spite of stupidity and political gridlock,” Dimon said, “because the American business sector is powerful and strong, and it’s going to grow regardless — you wake up in the morning.”

Chase earned $26.5 billion over the last year — the most a major U.S. bank has ever earned, according to Bloomberg.

The bank’s second-quarter EPS came in at $1.82 against expectations of $1.58.

The comments from the always outspoken Dimon, 61, come on the heels of a letter to Chase shareholders earlier this year that singled out issues he said are dinging American competitiveness, including low wage growth, high health care costs, excessive regulation, crumbling infrastructure, a lagging education system and taxes.

On Friday, Dimon said he’d recently visited Argentina, Israel and Ireland, and had met with Indian and Chinese leaders.

“It’s amazing to me that every single one of these countries understands that practical policies that promote business and growth [are] good for the average citizens of these countries for jobs and wages and that somehow, [in] this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it.”

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Within 20 Years, 35% Of Fortune 3000 Companies Will Be Based In China, Jamie Dimon Says  ________ Image Credit: By Steve Jurvetson (Flickr: Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons