# @benzinga on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DF6oWuiJEn1
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26575241-benzinga-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e92eb75180.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-02-11T02:40:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Benzinga | News That Moves (@benzinga) — https://gondola.cc/benzinga

## Caption

When the 2008 financial crisis hit, it felt like the entire global economy was spiraling out of control. But for Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase JPM, it was exactly the moment he'd been preparing for—long before most people even realized there was a problem.

"I knew that if the sh*t had hit the fan early on, we would've had a real problem," Dimon admitted on the How Leaders Lead podcast on Thursday. But he didn't wait around to find out. 

One of the most intense moments came on March 13, 2008. Dimon was at a Greek restaurant with his parents when his phone rang. On the other end was Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz in full panic mode: "Jamie, I need $30 billion tonight, otherwise we're going to go bankrupt in Asia in the morning."

Dimon's reaction? Brutally honest: "Even I said, ‘Alan, I don't even know how to get $30 billion.'" But he didn't waste time. He called his senior team with a simple directive: "Get dressed and go to the office." Within hours, hundreds of JPMorgan employees were at their desks, dissecting Bear Stearns's books line by line. "We did six months of work in two days, and bought Bear Stearns that night," Dimon recalled. "That kind of thing is the moment where you're breathless."

While other banks scrambled, JPMorgan's internal "army" was already in motion. Dimon didn't need to reinvent the wheel; the machine was built and battle-tested. Before the crisis, the risk committee met once a week. When markets collapsed? "It was meeting five times a day, every day, for a year," Dimon said. "And I mean, every day. I mean going to 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. because you had Asia—we had to be up for that."

Under that kind of pressure, Dimon said he saw firsthand who could handle stress and who couldn't. "Some people are great, and some are just children," he remarked bluntly. But he found his own way to cope with the chaos: "The only thing that really satisfies me when I have stress from work is to work."

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## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Benzinga | News That Moves | @benzinga | https://gondola.cc/benzinga | Brand |
| Jacob Shipley | @okcmayor | https://gondola.cc/okcmayor | Director of Social Media |

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