JPMorgan president says a recession may be price to pay

JPMorgan Chase President Daniel Pinto has vivid memories of what life is like when a country loses control of inflation.

As a child growing up in Argentina, Pinto, 59, said that inflation was often so high, prices for food and other goods spiked on an hourly basis. Workers could lose 20% of their salary if they didn’t rush to convert their paycheck into U.S. dollars, he said.

“Supermarkets had these armies of people using machines to relabel products, sometimes 10 to 15 times a day,” Pinto said. “At the end of the day, they had to remove all the labels and start over again the next day.”

The experiences of Pinto, a Wall Street veteran who runs the world’s biggest investment bank by revenue, informs his views at a key time for markets and the economy.

After unleashing trillions of dollars in support of households and businesses in 2020, the Federal Reserve is grappling with inflation at four-decade highs by raising rates and pulling back on its debt-buying programs. The moves have cratered stocks and bonds this year and rippled around the world as a surging dollar complicates other nations’ own battles with inflation.