Buffett likes Dimon for Treasury chief

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon would be the best person to lead the U.S. Treasury Department in a financial crisis, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said.

"If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job," Buffett said in response to a question about Dimon from Charlie Rose, according to the transcript of an interview that was scheduled to air Monday on PBS. "World leaders would have confidence in him."

President Barack Obama is seeking to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who had said he planned to step down. Dimon, 56, testified before Congress and shuffled top managers this year after the bank disclosed a loss, now of more than $6.2 billion, stemming from a wrong-way bet on credit derivatives. Buffett has described Dimon's annual letter to shareholders as a must-read.

"Obviously, you know, there was a failure of control," Buffett, 82, said to Rose about the trading loss. "If you run an army, if you run a church, if you run a government, any large institution, people will go off the reservation sometimes."

Joseph Evangelisti, a JPMorgan spokesman, declined to comment. Amy Brundage, a spokeswoman for Obama's administration, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dimon, once dubbed the president's "favorite banker" by The New York Times, said in a 2011 CNBC interview that he could never work as Treasury secretary and was "not suited to politics."

Dimon has criticized elements of the Dodd-Frank Act and the expense of financial regulations. He publicly questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on regulatory costs last year. In January, he said that if he were in charge, he would fix the U.S. housing market by locking mortgage lenders and regulators behind closed doors until they figured it out.

Four current and two former administration officials earlier this month named two other likely candidates for Treasury secretary: White House chief of staff Jack Lew and Erskine Bowles, who was President Bill Clinton's chief of staff.