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
I am grateful I only caught a few moments of this session: I couldn't believe the gushing coming from the Congressional committee. I expected to see them genuflect before the Saint. If he really is the "best" we are seriously in serious trouble.. and I agree, the trouble lies in our elected officials, AND the folks who elect them. We have a lot of work to do.
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