[Harlow:] For many mere in the United States, the holiday season is a time to rejoice. But in parts of the Middle East, that are targeted by militants celebrating Jesus' birth is an act of courage. Simply being Christian can mean death. My colleague Carol Costello spoke with an Iraqi Christian nun who is helping those most in need.
[Carol Costello, Cnn Correspondent:] What's happening to Christians in Pope Francis' words is genocide. Thousands displaced by ISIS, their lives forever changed. You can see it in this child's face in a refugee camp under Kurdish control. See it in a play put on by refugee Christian actors who share a community's grief on stage. I talked with Sister Ben over the internet. Can you still hear me? A Dominican nun caring for Christian children at this refugee camp. The connection was tenuous but we managed. Sister, how do you explain is to the children?
[Sister Ben Saaed, Dominican Sisters Of St. Catherine Of Sena:] They understand that ISIS is very, very dangerous. So they say we would like to be as a soldier to fight ISIS and we can't go back to our home.
[Costello:] So even the smallest children want to fight ISIS as soldiers?
[Saaed:] Yes. I'm talking about the first to five years children.
[Costello:] Millions of people of various religions from fled. Among them hundreds of thousands of Christians from Syria and Iraq. Sister Donna Markham is president of Catholic Charities
[Usa. Sister Donna Markham, President, Catholic Charities Usa:] August of 2014, August 6th, to be precise, ISIS came in and all of the Christians were essentially evicted from their homes. So their convent, their school, their hospitals, everything, their mother house, everything was lost. So they left with the clothes on their back and ran for their lives.
[Costello:] They ran from happy lives, from their middle class homes. The nuns ran from their convent to this, a refugee camp. They now live in shipping containers. Electricity goes in and out. Food is scarce. But they have no choice. So did ISIS use the usual tactic, you know, you either convert
[Markham:] Convert, pay a tax, yes.
[Costello:] So what did the nuns tell them?
[Markham:] They left with the Christian community because the sisters wouldn't certainly never convert and they didn't have money to be paying taxes. So but they fled with the Christians. And their desire which is really courageous from my vantage point is that they will not abandon their people.
[Costello:] Do you want to leave the country or do you want to go back home?
[Saaed:] Of course we would like to go back home because every single day our first half hour with the children we start with a prayer. So we ask the children, what would you like to share with God in your prayer? And first off all they say we would like to go back home.
[Costello:] People in the United States want to know how they can help. How can they help the Christians in Syria, in Iraq, and other places?
[Saaed:] First we are asking for your prayer because your prayer supports us. We would like to live our life normally, like others in this world. We would like to live our life as in peace because we haven't seen peace since we born. And we would like to live in dignity because we lost our dignity.
[Costello:] Carol Costello, CNN, New York.
[Harlow:] All right. The national weather service just issuing a tornado warning for Dallas, Texas. Our Karen Maginnis monitoring it all in the CNN severe weather center. Karen, what do we know about this hour?
[Maginnis:] It is a very dangerous situation. Tornado warning right around the Dallas Metroplex area. Not Ft. Worth but in Dallas right along that interstate 30 corridor. Over a million people at risk for a possible tornado. There are indications there is rotation with these thunderstorms. But not just here, in the Metroplex area further to the south. We have these discrete cells that have been popping up. They are much more prone to producing tornadoes. You can see there are tornado warnings out that go for about the next 30 minutes or so. This will be occurring over the next few hours. A very dynamic system that, in fact, on the back side of this for Dallas you could see a rainsnow mix tomorrow night. Very different Poppy.
[Harlow:] All right. We'll be watching very closely. Karen, thank you for that. The CEO of America's biggest bank Jamie Dimon sat down for a rare one- on-one interview with my colleague Cristina Alesci. He is bullish on the state of the U.S. economy and you will also hear him give his take on the income inequality debate.
[Jamie Dimon, Ceo, Jpmorgan Chase:] In the short term, OK, U.S. economy is broad based, going two and two-and-a-half percent. Consumers are in better shape. The debt service how much income goes to service debt is back where it was in 1985. Household formation is going up as prices are going up, 401 [k] s are going up. Small business middle market, large companies are in very good shape. If you look at America in the long term, we have exceptional universities. We have the best military in the planet. We will for a long period of time. We have the best businesses. Medium, large, and small. We have unbelievable innovation from the Steve Jobs to the factory floor. We have a great work ethic. Very low corruption. We have the greatest military barriers ever built called the Atlantic and the pacific. All the food, water, and energy we ever want. We are in pretty good shape. You know, it converse and says out of respect, China doesn't have enough energy. And they are, you know, they are surrounded by Russia, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, China, North Korea, Philippines. It's a tough part of the world. And even since World War II, they had squish issues with four or five of those nations. They don't have enough food, water, and energy. They don't have a lot things going right. So we have it. We're in really good shape.
[Cristina Alesci, Cnn Money Correspondent:] Now, you said you don't see weakness. You don't see a dark spot in the American economy? Some people will point to income in equality. Do you think that is a real issue? Do you think income inequality is a real issue?
[Dimon:] Yes, I do. Early in recovery, often income goes to, you know, the one percent is, you know, asset prices go up. But I would like to talk to what are the solutions to it? What should we do about it? I have three very basic ones, OK. Grow the economy more. Focus on growing the economy. Get wage pressure. And then we will all be obviously be complaining about too much wage pressure. Second, skills train and education so both the education, MSE schools and the proper training. So as kid graduate school, they have a certificate that leads to a job andor college down the road. And I love the idea. And I heard from both Republicans and Democrats of a better income tax credit. So being paid to work. So it is an incentive, you know. I think people are proud of their work. So that working is a good thing to do. It is supposed to be paid for if not to work, so. And there are a bunch of other ideas. But I would love to sit down around the table what will fix this. You know, it is not going to fix if the point to people and yell at them and think that they are to blame.
[Alesci:] When you started in the business in the 1980s, about 60 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the finance industry. Today that number is 37 percent. Why so low?
[Dimon:] Which is it for media?
[Alesci:] I have no idea. But I know that we are not near the bottom.
[Dimon:] My guess, it is not that much different. The disaster happened in 2009, OK. The American public was hurt. And, you know, I think in general they would look at the culprits on of being some combination of Washington in Wall Street. In general, that is true. There is not that every bank was that bad. Everyone made some kind of mistake. And I think it hurt everyone. But you know, one of the things that happened in society today is we do this to everybody. So if you go way back when, we thought doctors, lawyers, police, stock brokers were all up here. Now they are all down here. Somehow, media. Somehow, we kind we have all lost trust in each other, which I don't think it is a good thing. And you know, more than I can do is to bank each other. Earn it back. And so, our customers at
[Alesci:] As the leader of the biggest bank in the U.S., do you feel personally responsible to revive the perception of bankers in this country, to make it better, to make sure that people like bankers more?
[Dimon:] I can only do my part to earn our trust and respect every day, both with our client and the communities we do business. And with our regulators and the governments, we try to have, you know, we have a lot that demands us whom will make more happy. I can't single handed and make America
[Alesci:] You can't. But that was my question.
[Dimon:] Yes, I feel respond to do my part as best as I can as long as I am here, yes.
[Alesci:] You stress test for everything. You said that. The Greek exit.
[Dimon:] Hundred a week. Everything, yes. All the time. And you reinvent new ones sometime just to scare yourself in.
[Alesci:] How about if Bernie Sanders wins? Have you stressed test for that?
[Dimon:] I don't think Bernie is going to win. But I'm not that worried about that even if he became president.
[Alesci:] Why? Do you think you can talk to him out of breaking up same things?
[Dimon:] Well, I think that is a far more complicated subject. You know, company JPMorgan, you know, I'm really proud of this company. You know, I travel around the world Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi, and Mumbai, and Hong Kong. And you know, we help their countries, their people, their companies. They want us. They want more of our capital, our brain power. And you know, we help some of these big American multinationals in 30 or 40 countries. We raised almost $2 trillion a cap for year for big business, small business, hospitals, governments. We just did a bond for crew. That's what we do. And you know, you need to be a big bank to do some of that stuff.
[Alesci:] So you think that you can convince him
[Dimon:] I would hope so, yes.
[Alesci:] There is more benefit in being a big bank than breaking a law.
[Dimon:] You need them. If you break them up, someone else are going to do it. And they will be the Chinese. And if you think that is good for the future of America, I beg to defer.
[Alesci:] Speaking of politics for a second. You supported you contributed to Hillary in 2006 and 2007. Why not recently?
[Dimon:] I am not getting involved in politics right now.
[Alesci:] At all?
[Dimon:] At all.
[Alesci:] Well, you brought
[Dimon:] I
[Alesci:] After the results come through?
[Dimon:] No. If and when I feel like it, I'll do it.
[Alesci:] Why? Are you going to run for office?
[Dimon:] No. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about support a candidate. But the public should know JPMorgan and its pact does not support anyone nor has it ever. But when we tell our people here, by the way, listen to both candidates. If you're a Democrat, listen to some of the really smart Republicans. If you're Republican, listen to some of the smart Democrats. Don't just have a knee-jerk reaction.
[Alesci:] You brought up policy, right. And so the tax policy has been something that's been debated. And you've admitted that it needs to be addressed, right?
[Dimon:] Yes.
[Alesci:] Trump was one of the candidates. Actually, he was the first Republican candidate to bring up the fact that Wall Street should pay higher taxes. Do you agree?
[Dimon:] Look. When you say that, we pay I was actually in Hong Kong, and the chief executive in Hong Kong was talking to a bunch of our clients. JPMorgan, thank you for the taxes you pay. We pay a lot of taxes. We pay about 30 percent in cash every year, OK. So we pay a lot of taxes. We also pay the
[Fdic -- Alesci:] Is that your effective tax rate?
[Dimon:] Yes. Cash. It is our gap and our cash is about the same, around 30 percent. It changes year by year. So we actually pay that much in cash taxes. So forget banks. The issues with corporations is our tax rate is the highest of all developed nations. We are driving capital overseas at the margin. I have already told people in Washington, by the time you figure it out, the only question is how much damage has been done? You can't forget the right or wrong but you can't have taxes 10 percent higher that is about everybody else and think it is good for the country. It can't be good for the country. Those who have a choice who are leaving their capital overseas, they believe plans overseas, they have been argue overseas. And you know, here, people say, listen, you're not patriotic. It has nothing to do with patriotism. Those are the choices individuals make when they move, when they do things. So we should fix that. It doesn't mean that I don't think we shouldn't fix personal taxes too. I want to eliminate a whole bunch of deductions. I get rid that carried interest tax. I do a whole bunch of things too.
[Alesci:] So you would be willing to pay more, you personally?
[Dimon:] Yes. But here is the issue about that. I would. But you know, the American public, and one that people says, put their faith
[Harlow:] Fascinating interview from our Cristina Alesci with Jamie Dimon. Thank you for that. Coming up next, tonight's number.