Rashida Tlaib Wants a Climate Bank Run Lawmakers are a bigger financial-stability risk than climate change.
Jamie Dimon one, Congress zero: Not Net Zero!
Rashida Tlaib Wants a Climate Bank Run
Lawmakers are a bigger financial-stability risk than climate change.
WSJ Opinion: Rashida Tlaib and Jamie Dimon's 'Road to Hell'
WSJ Opinion: Rashida Tlaib and Jamie Dimon's 'Road to Hell'
Play video: WSJ Opinion: Rashida Tlaib and Jamie Dimon's 'Road to Hell'
Video clip: During a House hearing on Bank Oversight, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) asked bankers, who have committed to long-term net-zero carbon emissions targets, whether they have a policy against funding new oil and gas products. Images: Shutterstock/C-Span Composite: Mark Kelly
The political left increasingly claims climate change is an imminent threat to global financial stability and demands regulators do something about it. Well, if we’re talking about financial threats, how about the Democratic Congresswoman who called for a bank run to protest an institution’s fossil-fuel investments?
We speak of Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who on Wednesday got into a verbal tussle with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Let’s go to the videotape toward the end of a marathon six-hour financial-services committee hearing:
Ms. Tlaib: “So I would like to ask all of you, go down the list, because again you all are agreed to doing this [supporting long-term net-zero carbon emissions targets], please answer with a simple yes or no, does your bank have a policy against funding new oil and gas products? Mr. Dimon?”
Mr. Dimon: “Absolutely not, and that would be the road to hell for America.”
Ms. Tlaib: “Yeah, that’s fine. Sir, you know what, everybody that got relief from student loans [who] has a bank account with your bank should probably take out their account and close their account.”
By this point, Ms. Tlaib and other Democrats on the committee appear to have been irritated with Mr. Dimon for telling uncomfortable truths. One was his observation that the world is discovering how insecure the global energy supply is, and that investment in natural gas will be the best, cleaner-burning alternative to coal for years to come.
The other was that President Biden’s mammoth student-loan forgiveness plan is a bad idea. “I wish they had targeted the people who actually needed help,” Mr. Dimon noted, while describing the debt-relief plan as a Band-Aid.
Apparently banks now need to bow to Democratic policy priorities or risk lawmakers inciting a bank run. The good news here is that the vast majority of Mr. Dimon’s customers probably don’t take Ms. Tlaib any more seriously than anyone else does. Besides, isn’t the student-forgiveness plan supposed to be helping people so impoverished by college debt that they aren’t able to save?
This exchange and the broader point of Mr. Dimon’s testimony Wednesday highlight the extent to which climate-obsessed lawmakers and regulators pose a greater threat to the economy and financial system than changes in the climate. It’s a relief that some business leaders still are willing to say so.
Appeared in the September 23, 2022, print edition as 'Rashida Tlaib Wants a Climate Bank Run'.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rashida-tlaib-wants-a-climate-bank-run-jpmorgan-chase-jamie-dimon-congress-11663853414?st=x9ynk25m5wbsg7s&reflink=article_email_share