JPMorgan Chase Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon attends a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the company’s new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in New York City, USA, on October 21, 2025.
Eduardo Muñoz | Reuters
JP Morgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon warned on Tuesday that rising government debt levels could trigger a bond market crisis, urging policymakers to take action before markets force them to.
Dimon’s remarks came in response to a question about whether he was concerned about rising government debt levels “around the world and in your country.”
“In the current situation, there will be some sort of bond crisis, and we will have to deal with it,” Dimon said at an investment conference held by the world’s largest Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.
“I’m not really worried about being able to handle it,” Dimon said. “I think maturity should say you need to deal with it instead of just letting it happen.”
Mr. Dimon, who runs the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, said history shows that today’s growing combination of risks can combine in unpredictable ways. Although the timing is uncertain, failure to address these pressures increases the likelihood of disruption followed by adjustment rather than deliberate policy moves.
“Geopolitics, oil, government deficits, things that go into the risk column are at a high level,” Dimon said. “They may go away, but they may not. And we don’t know what confluence of events will cause the problem.”
A bond crisis likely means a sudden spike in yields and a collapse in market liquidity, with investors rushing to sell and buyers retreating, usually forcing central banks to step in as buyers of last resort.
A recent example is the 2022 UK Gilt crisis. At this time, yields on British government bonds rose sharply, and the Bank of England had to intervene to stabilize the market.
In a wide-ranging interview, Dimon discussed the credit cycle, risks in the pace of artificial intelligence adoption, and insights into shaping corporate culture.
While he doesn’t believe private credit, amounting to about $1.7 trillion, is large enough to pose a systemic risk to the U.S. economy, he said the bigger risk is that the economic downturn across all lending categories will be more severe than expected.
“We haven’t had a credit recession in a while, so when it does happen, it’s going to be much worse than people think,” Dimon said. “It could be terrible.”
