JPMorgan CEO: Beirut 'Safer' Than Occupy Protests

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told Fox Business that he was safer being in Beirut than his own home when Occupy protesters invaded his neighborhood in October, 2011.

"That particular day, I was in Lebanon, Beirut doing business over there and I was probably safer over there too," Dimon said.

See the Jamie Dimon interview via Fox Business:

When Occupy Wall Street staged a protest designed "to see how the 1 percent lives," they specifically targeted well-to-do New York neighborhoods.

On a side note: When “Occupiers” decided to stage this particular protest, they completely ignored billionaire currency speculator George Soros’ apartment building.

But even though Dimon was a direct target of this protest, he told Fox Business that the Occupy movement has some points he agrees with.

"The institutions of America -- broadly defined -- let us down and that includes Wall Street, includes Washington for the most part," he said. However, when “you get beyond that and you blame us all equally, all politicians, all businesses, all banks, that's not accurate and I think that leads to bad policy."

In fact, according to Dimon, the policies enacted by the White House at the outset of the Obama administration have been so uncoordinated and disjointed that they've actually hindered the economy's recovery.

"I do think that we've made this recovery slower and worse by uncoordinated policy, the debt ceiling crisis, and tons of other things which were misguided," Dimon said.

And concerning the Occupy movement: Although Dimon believes there's something to be said about "income inequality," he believes there needs to be actual, reasonable goals as opposed to simply "complaining."

“What do you do about that? Washington needs to have a serious argument about how do you fix the problem, not just complain about it," Dimon said. "While celebrating work, success, meritocracy -- let's not throw the baby out with the bath water on that."

Dimon also made sure to note that people who are “successful,” those who have been working hard for 50+ years, should be praised -- not denigrated.

The interview ends with Dimon putting to rest rumors that he has helped raised campaign cash for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (as opposed to President Obama who publicly supported in 2008). However, even though Dimon denies financially supporting Mitt Romney, it seems pretty clear that he no longer supports President Obama.

(H/T: Huffington Post)