Jamie Dimon’s recovery from heart surgery not fast enough for anxious Wall Street

When Wall Streeters tell Jamie Dimon to get well soon, they mean it. As Washington rushes to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from becoming a bigger economic crisis than the 2008 mortgage meltdown, financial types are bemoaning the loss of their unofficial spokesman, JPMorgan’s straight-talking boss. Dimon, a born-and-bred New Yorker who lives on Park Avenue, …

When Wall Streeters tell Jamie Dimon to get well soon, they mean it.

As Washington rushes to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from becoming a bigger economic crisis than the 2008 mortgage meltdown, financial types are bemoaning the loss of their unofficial spokesman, JPMorgan’s straight-talking boss.

Dimon, a born-and-bred New Yorker who lives on Park Avenue, underwent emergency heart surgery on March 5 and has been on bed rest ever since. A JPMorgan spokesman said he is “recovering very well” and has been even participating in “some calls and meetings via video.”

Nevertheless, insiders also said it would be an exaggeration to say Dimon is “working from home.” Normal recovery time for Dimon’s procedure, in which a tear in his aorta was repaired, is three months.

With the coronavirus crisis growing darker every day, bankers, brokers and other Wall Street executives are growing increasingly anxious for the return of the industry’s liaison to Main Street and Capitol Hill.

“You need the gravitas of a Jamie Dimon right now,” said Wells Fargo senior banking analyst Mike Mayo, a noted Dimon “frenemy” who’s famous for grilling the CEO on earnings calls. “How many people in finance are known by their first name?”

Dimon’s withdrawal from public life comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked fears that banks will stop lending to businesses — or that people won’t be able to withdraw funds from their own accounts if banks start closing en masse.

These are issues that Dimon — a regular presence on news programs like CNBC and Fox Business — could be knocking down on TV under different circumstances, sources said.

“Jamie is the guy who can calm markets by going on TV and saying ‘Don’t worry about liquidity, the banks are fine and we’ll keep money flowing,’” said one bulge bracket banker. “He can do that because he’s Jamie.”

He could, for example, tout JPMorgan — the nation’s largest lender — as financially strong and open for business no matter what, sources said.

“In 2008, banks were the problem. Now, they’re the solution,” explained Mayo. “The banking industry is as tough as it’s ever been, but it takes someone like Jamie Dimon to stand up and make that point.”

Dimon’s also well connected in DC, where he’s been known to publicly pillory politicians one day and work with them the next, including President Trump, a fellow Queens native. After claiming in 2018 that he could beat Trump in an election because he’s “as tough as he is” and “smarter,” Dimon told 60 Minutes that the two have made amends.

“I walked in the Oval Office and he said, ‘So you would love to have this office, wouldn’t you?,’” Dimon said. “And I said, ‘Not really.’”

Dimon’s Washington connections and credibility could come in handy right now as the Fed scrambles for solutions to keep money flowing, including just this week by buying mortgage-backed securities to help lower mortgage rates, sources said.

“If Steve Mnuchin and Jay Powell need someone to talk to about what they should be doing, they should be asking the one guy who worked with Treasury and the Fed in ’08 and still has his job,” Mayo said. “I just hope he has the energy to pick up the phone.”

One person familiar with COVID-19 crisis negotiations in DC tells The Post that Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has stepped up to fill Dimon’s role as the chief interlocutor between the banking sector and Capitol Hill, but admits no one has filled Dimon’s shoes when it comes to explaining financial complexities to the American people.

“Clearly, Jamie is missed,” the DC insider said.