"Senators press a contrite JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon" by Zachary A. Goldfarb | Washington Post, June 14, 2012
WASHINGTON — JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon faced a reckoning in Congress on Wednesday, learning that emotions in Washington are still raw four years after the financial crisis and that politicians are still hotly debating the government’s response.
Yeah, right, he faced reckoning in front of those he owns, yup.
I am SO SICK of the POLITICAL SHOW FOOLEY!
We DO NOT NEED NEW "ELECTIONS" -- if that is what you want to call AmeriKa's kabuki dance known as politics -- we need those we already elected to listen to us and do what we told them.
Unfortunately, $omething $eems to be blocking them from hearing.
Now THAT is a RECKONING, and we are GETTING TO THAT POINT because the TRUTH is we are RIGHT BACK WHERE WE WERE FIVE YEARS AGO!! World banking system is going to need another huge bailout because of what is happening in Europe.
In contrite and straightforward testimony, he apologized for the bank’s $2 billion or more in trading losses last month, saying they were the result of an errant strategy at a unit that was supposed to reduce risk.
That would be a first for banker.
Related: The Jerks at JPMorgan
Btw, the losses are actually way more but the obfuscatory mouthpiece media are sticking with $2 billion.
He said the bank may take back some of the payments made to employees involved in the strategy. He said it had all been ‘‘embarrassing.’’
Some on the Senate Banking Committee demanded more.
‘‘When those bets go bad, instead of taking responsibility for it, you blame it on the unit that you set up?’’ asked Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat. ‘‘Shouldn’t you take personal responsibility since they were following the game plan that you personally laid out?’’
‘‘We made a mistake. I am absolutely responsible,’’ Dimon said. ‘‘The buck stops with me.’’
Yeah, except YOU PASSED IT, you f***!!!!!
A Democrat once close to the White House — President Obama called him one of the ‘‘smartest bankers’’ just a few weeks ago — Dimon has become one of the harshest critics of the administration’s signature overhaul of financial regulation, known as Dodd-Frank.
Except those regulations haven't been written yet (wtf)?!
But as JPMorgan’s big trading loss renewed political pressure for greater oversight of Wall Street, Dimon has silenced his usually fiery critique of Washington intervention. On Wednesday, Republicans pushed him to blast it again. The now-chastened Dimon was reluctant.
‘‘Has Dodd-Frank more than marginally made our banking system safer?’’ asked Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee.
Dimon noted he had supported some elements of the bill. Corker asked again. Dimon dodged.
A third time: ‘‘Has it made our system safer?’’
‘‘I don’t know,’’ Dimon said.
But Democrats were quick to remind Dimon that they had enacted the financial overhaul because banks had gotten themselves into such a mess in 2008.
I'm failing to see the mess. They all made big commissions and bonuses while bundling up the mortgage-security shit that they sold to investors, then they made a pile betting against the very same investments with their credit default swaps, which were paid in full when the government bailed out the banks.
They then seized homes in a fraudulent foreclosure scheme so they could back up the crap paper the Federal Reserve is printing to buy back all the crap securities that foreign governments and state and local pension plans (interesting that they are being blamed for all the government budget woes now as tens of millions of dollars a month go for debt service to banks and in the form of taxpayer-cut tax credit checks to profitable yet well-connected concerns) bought, the same plans over which the very same banks "overcharged"-- I call it stealing -- you by mistake for their stewardship). And now they are back making billions per quarter in profits doing the very same things.
Banks got US in a MESS, dear readers, because THEY DESTROYED the WORLD ECONOMY with their money-making schemes!
Democrats are pushing for a tough interpretation of the Dodd-Frank law, while regulators fill in the details.
What do you mean regulators filling in details TWO YEARS LATER? WTF?!!!
What it means, dear readers, is they are OPERATING AS THEY WERE BEFORE because the NEW RULES (whatever they are going to be) are NOT IN FORCE YET!
A core and unresolved question is whether the Volcker Rule, a provision opposed by Dimon that would ban banks from speculating with their own money, would have prevented the activity at JPMorgan.
After Dimon told lawmakers that JPMorgan had a ‘‘fortress balance sheet’’ despite the recent loss, Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, told him he was playing ‘‘Russian roulette.’’ He added, ‘‘I’d like to remind you that fortress balance sheet has a moat that was dug by taxpayers to the tune of $25 billion in bailout money and more than $450 billion in loans from the Fed.’’
Related: Fed Funnels Made Millions Off Mutual Fund Bailout
They MADE MONEY being a MIDDLEMAN!!!?!!!???
Menendez was referring to the Bush administration’s investments in JPMorgan and most other major banks as part of the Troubled Assets Relief Program in 2008, as well as emergency Fed lending to banks during the crisis.
Merkley later pressed that same point, and Dimon showed his frustration.
‘‘Wouldn’t JPMorgan have gone down without the massive federal intervention, both directly and indirectly in 2008 or 2009?’’ Merkley asked.
‘‘I think you were misinformed, and I think that misinformation is leading to a lot of the problems we’re having today,’’ Dimon told the senator, saying that JPMorgan took money only at the request of policy makers in Washington.
Yeah, turns out JPMorgan was "the only major US bank to remain profitable throughout the financial crisis."
‘‘If you had applied that Old Testament justice in 2008-2009, JPMorgan would have gone down and you would have been out of a job,’’ Merkley continued.
Even though it was the topic of the discussion, Dimon gave relatively few new details about what had transpired in the bank’s Chief Investment Office, where the bad trades occurred. The Justice Department is looking into the matter.
(Blog editor shrugs shoulders and raises palms to ceiling)
Why have a f***ing hearing then? So the puppets can look like they are doing something down there in D.C.? A SHOW FOOLEY!?
And SPEAKING of FOOLEYS:
Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts was among the lawmakers who called on Dimon to take back the bonuses and any other financial incentives reaped by those responsible for the trading debacle that led to the loss.
‘‘The only way to change the culture on Wall Street is to hit people where it hurts — in the wallet,’’ Brown said in a statement.
This from a guy who is collecting gobs of campaign cash from Wall Street (just like last time), and who instantly set about to subvert the toothless Dodd-Frank.
Police removed protesters as JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie
Dimon (left) took his seat at a Senate Banking hearing in Washington on
Wednesday (J. Scott Applewhite/ASSOCIATED PRESS).
Oh, there were protesters there?
--more--"
Update: JPMorgan chief plans to apologize on Capitol Hill
Oh, there were protesters there?
--more--"
Update: JPMorgan chief plans to apologize on Capitol Hill
Left wing radio and people that watch the stuff I will not watch told me the hearing was a love fest, meaning Dimon had fellatio performed upon him.
Btw, did you know that JPMorgan also helped underwrite the Facebook IPO fraud in a clear case of market manipulation?
WILMINGTON, Del. — JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Bear Stearns unit agreed to a proposed $275 million cash settlement of a consolidated federal lawsuit filed by investors who lost money from 2006 to 2008.
Under the deal, which requires approval by a judge, the money, minus legal fees, will go to shareholders who claimed the company issued “materially false and misleading statements” about financial results, according to papers filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
We call it LYING here at the MSM Monitor.
Company officials “continue to deny any wrongdoing” in the case, according to a stipulation filed with the court....
They are f***ing incredible. They are worse than a little kid when you know the kid is lying.
--more--"
All a very gentle slap on the wrist when "corporate profits have risen 58 percent since mid-2009" and "corporate profits set a post World War II record last year."
Also see: Those Who Own the U.S. Economy
Oh, all of a sudden the ECONOMY MAKES SENSE!
Update:
"Barney Frank, others defend Wall Street overhaul law; Stricter oversight, enforcement could bar losses, he says" by Bobby Caina Calvan | Globe Staff, June 20, 2012
WASHINGTON - Representative Stephen Lynch of South Boston requested that Dimon’s testimony be made under oath - a request immediately rejected by the committee’s chairman, Representative Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama....
WTF?
Bachus noted that, while the company had absorbed billions in losses and harm to its reputation, and some employees had lost their jobs, taxpayers had not suffered.
“This is how the system is supposed to work: those who take the risk are the ones who suffer the loss or realize the gain. It stands in stark contrast to the regime of taxpayer-funded bailouts with privatized profits and socialized losses we’ve experienced in the cases of AIG, GM, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Solyndra,’’ Bachus said.
He's got that last part right, and that's about all.
Bachus said regulations have become too complex, with too many agencies having overlapping roles. He noted that the agencies overseeing investment markets, including examiners who were apparently embedded at JPMorgan, failed to express concern about the bank’s hedging strategies....
If they were EMBEDDED(?) at JPMorgan then how come this was allowed to happen?
--more--"
They are defending regulations yet to be written (after two years?).
Related: Senate Sends Along Financial Fraud Bill
Nothing like capping a career with failure, 'eh?
Wall Street Not Worried About Washington Regulations
Wall Street Writing Washington Regulations
That's why they are not done yet.
