[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has Warren Buffett's vote.  As Timothy Geithner prepares to step down as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, the billionaire investor has tapped the bank chief, who he said "would actually be the best person you could have in the job" in a financial crisis. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is currently invested in Mr. Dimon's firm, with 1 million JPMorgan shares in his personal account, according to a transcript from a July 13 Bloomberg Television interview.

Speaking to Charlie Rose in an interview for PBS, Mr. Buffett, 82, addressed the London Whale scandal, during which JPMorgan lost $6.2 million.  

"Obviously, you know, there was a failure of control.  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."

A Changing Tide? The consideration of Mr. Dimon (also endorsed by portfolio manager Bonnie Baha) is a sharp contrast to statements made by the chief himself.  Just last year, Dimon told CNBC that he could never work as Treasury secretary and was "not suited to politics."

Since then, Mr. Dimon has been a vocal critic of current policy:

• he has criticized elements of the Dodd-Frank Act and the expense of financial regulations
• last year, he publicly questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on regulatory costs
• this 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 a solution was reached
• he has admonished lawmakers to solve the so-called fiscal cliff, the package of automatic spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect in January

[C-I Note: Is Mr. Dimon backtracking in order to be considered for the position, considering his take on the fiscal cliff contradicts remarks he made in in June?  Then, he told a Senate panel that the government could risk an earlier-than-expected fiscal crisis if policy makers were deadlocked on taxes and the budget.]

Other likely candidates for Mr. Geithner's role, expected to be vacated early next year, include White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and Erskine Bowles, President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff.

For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 11/27/12].