Jamie Dimon: 'Some JPMorgan Execs Acted Like Children'

London Whale temper tantrums.

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said some top executives at the largest U.S. bank "acted like children" in handling an errant derivatives bet that cost the company more than $6.2 billion last year.

Full details at Bloomberg...

Comments

[Cheyenne]

Why does Dimon even bother lying about the so-called London Whale trade at this point? He shredded his own credibility when he got pissy and called the incident a “tempest in a teapot,” then annihilated the smattering of credibility he had left by claiming the loss would be limited to $2 billion. Why would anyone now believe Dimon’s empty—and boring—yarn about crying employees?

But more broadly, doesn’t the media ever get tired of repeating—without ever challenging—straw man explanations by Wall Street shills who can’t even lie well?

When Obama blames the crisis on Wall Street’s greed and recklessness, why can’t a single reporter ask: Alan Greenspan said the problem was actually criminal fraud and illegality; isn’t that both more specific and more accurate?

When Lanny Breuer says he can’t prosecute bank executives because the burden of proving crimes is too high, why can’t a single reporter ask him: isn’t it true that burden of proof has remained exactly the same since the S&L crisis when more than a 1000 financial executives went to jail?

People in the media are servile Wall Street PR agents. There isn’t a single MSM reporter who hasn’t enthusiastically traded his nut sack in exchange for a chance to grovel before criminals. Consequently, the media gets no respect from either the public or Wall Street. And they wonder why their ratings have gone the way of their balls.

[DailyBail]

Big Banks Slither out of Mortgage Fraud Review with Minor Costs

http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/big-banks-slither-out-of-mortgage-fraud-review-with-minor-costs-130111?news=846719

[DailyBail]

Cheyenne

Some of the issues you mention are talked about in this new clip from Taibbi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DHh_nwFxX5A

I'm going to get it posted later today.

[DailyBail]

Cheyenne

Here's what pisses me off regarding reporters and the questions you ask - lack of follow up. I've heard holder, breuer, obama, geithner, summers all asked the question regarding fraud and wall street prosecution, etc. Then each gives his answer memorized from talking points that we've all heard a thousand times, and BOOM, that's it. Reporter moves on to another question, issue is forgotten. Nothing is ever challenged. It's superficial reporting and exposes the fact that the journalist doesn't know the issue well enough to put up a fight.

However, there is one exception. Ratigan is the single greatest all time at fighting back against the propaganda. He would constantly interrupt his guests and call out their bullshit. And some guests threw fits, never before having experienced such umbrage.

[Cheyenne]

Taibbi has really stepped up his game now that he's attacking the bailouts. Now he recognizes that (1) the bailouts were predicated entirely on lies and (2) that entire market is based on bailouts (Taibbi calls it "the bailout era").

I wish the panelists in that clip would have followed up the question about Wall Street's (wholly spurious) claim that the entire economy would have been worse off without the bailout. That claim has been debunked repeatedly. After the bailout, for example, TARP recipients were less profitable, lent out less, but paid out more in compensation--both in absolute terms and in percentage increases--than non-TARP banks. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2010-04-21-tarp-banks-side_N.htm In other words, TARP was nothing more than a transfer of money from the productive economy to bankers who couldn't compete without government aid.

And that finding by the 2010 USA Today study was made BEFORE the Fed was forced to disclose in 2011 the fact that it had secretly made some $16 trillion in interest-free loans to Wall Street. This means that the big Wall Street banks couldn't compete with Main Street banks despite trillions in handouts pouring in from both the Treasury AND the Fed.

From what it looks like, Taibbi plans to continue digging into and airing out the ugly truths about the bailouts. He's already followed up his recent piece, "Secrets and Lies," with another fantastic blast showing how dishonesty and concealment by TARP banks had a direct and adverse effect on Main Street: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/secrets-and-lies-of-the-bailout-one-brokers-story-20130108

As for Ratigan, he went off the reservation in June of 2012 when he walked away from MSNBC. And with his departure, there's not a truth teller left on mainstream TV.