Too Big To Fail Still In Effect

Listening to J.P.Morgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon tell members of the House Financial

Service Committee that he and his company are doing everything it can to restore confidence

in the U.S. financial system left me awed. The thing is I don't know if I was awed by Dimon's

apparent delusion or his impressive ability to lie with a straight face.

Dimon was called to testify before the committee on Wednesday so that he could explain the $2 billion

dollars in losses that JP Morgan Chase experienced due to a risky trade back in May. The losses called into question the companies practices and whether or not it had learned anything from the financial meltdown that ravaged Wall Street at the end of 2008.

After patting himself on the back for not accepting bailout money from the government during the crisis, Dimon went into a diatribe about how the company that paid him almost $21 million in compensation pay in 2010 is less like Wall Street and more like Main Street. “We provide health-care

coverage for 417,000 people, we have long standing relationships with 400,000 small businesses, and last year our Foundation made charitable contributions of approxiametly $100 million across the U.S.”

Dimon conveniently glosses over the fact that not much if anything has changed on Wall Street, including banks like his still being “Too Big to Fail”. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law almost two years ago by President Obama. The law implements financial regulatory reform. However the law has yet to be fully put in place, and Congressional Republicans have typically tried to water it down at every turn. Dimon himself has tried to use his considerable clout to trash one of the bills key provisions “The Volcker Rule” which places restrictions on proprietary trading. He has even gone on every money grubbing CEO's favorite network

CNBC (or Fox Business News, there is no difference) to publicly voice his displeasure with the rule to the sympathetic ears of Maria Bartiromo.

A repeal of Dodd-Frank, which is what every Republican under the sun including Presidential nominee Mitt Romney wants, means a return to the wild wild west atmosphere of 2007-08 that Jamie Dimon and Wall Street bigwigs everywhere loved. Who cares about families being thrown out of their homes and the nation's economy being thrown into a tailspin that makes it virtually impossible for average Americans to find a job that pays a living wage, I'm getting another yacht and a summer home to boot.

The real problem lies not with the Dimons of the world, who are insatiable vultures when it comes to cash, and will stop at nothing when allowed to take advantage of the system. The problem lies with elected officials, particularly Democrats who are in a position to stop them.

As a huge fan of President Obama, I have been disappointed with the fact that none of these billionaire CEO's have been perp walked into police stations in front of millions. The President can go a long way in rectifying this, assuming he gets re-elected by using 2013's State of the Union address to announce his intention to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

Unlike Dodd-Frank, Glass-Steagall is cut and dry. It imposed banking reforms to control speculation and it also limited activities between commercial banks and securites firms. This will in effect break-up the “Too Big to Fail Banks” and restore some sanity to the banking system, and the President without the threat of Wall Street's money being used to vote him out of office will restore consumer confidence.

Surely, Republicans in Congress particularly Eric Cantor and John Boehner assuming they are still around will try to stop the President on this, After all the GOP begin watering down the original Glass-Steagall in the early 60's. By 1998 Bill Clinton and Congressional Democrats basically said “the hell with it” and allowed the rest of the law to be struck down, despite the pleas of former Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, one of the loudest proponents of the law.

I know, the chances of the President actually doing this are extremely remote, but if it were to happen the great thing about the unbrideled joy that I would have, is that it would be matched by the downright anger and disgust felt by Jamie Dimon and every other CEO on Wall Street.

I would like to know what you think email me at ebrew79@live.com and follow me on twitter @ebrew79