Back in 2007, just before the global financial crisis, Chuck Prince, then the ill-starred head of Citigroup, famously told the FT that “as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.”
Or in plain English: when an asset class is booming, competitive pressures force financiers to keep peddling deals — even if they fear the bubble will burst.
It is a mantra that might haunt Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan, right now. In recent months, Dimon has repeatedly warned about risks lurking in private credit, which has recently had such a “meteoric rise”, to cite the Boston Federal Reserve, that it has been one of the fastest-growing finance sectors.