Lord Dimon made an appearance at our House of Lords this Wednesday.
Lord Bob Corker: "Oh my, Mr. Dimon, whatever should we do to uhhh, make things
better.. we have plum run out of ideas!"
Here's the gist of what happened on Wednesday:
Jamie Dimon, CEO of the JPMorgan Chase, the country’s largest bank, appeared before the committee after a clear screw-up: traders at JPMorgan placed a series of complex bets that resulted in $2 billion in losses and counting.
This should be of great concern to the Senate. Since deposits at JPMorgan Chase are backed by the federal government, risky market gambling could create the need for another massive public bailout of a normally profitable private bank.
But instead, a vast majority of the Senators at Wednesday’s hearing repeatedly praised Dimon’s wisdom and executive acuity while politely soliciting his opinion on how he thought his own bank should be regulated. That shouldn't be too surprising if one examines the bank's political giving--members of the committee received $522,088 of the bank's cash in recent years, with $296,557 going to Democrats and $285,531 to Republicans. (See the graphic above).
And Dimon happily played the part. To underscore who is the boss, he first demanded and received a one-week delay in the hearing after being summoned by the chairman, Senator Tim Johnson, and then showed up on the appointed day wearing cufflinks with the presidential seal to take questions from his underlings.
“We’re here quizzing you,” Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) explained to Dimon in a typical exchange. “If you were sitting on this side of the dais, what would you do to make our system safer than it is, and still meet the needs of a global economy like we have?”
What a load from Corker. Clearly Dimon doesn't need to "sit on that side of the dais"; he's got most of the senators there puckering up to kiss his arse, and more or less let him know
he is in charge, not the senate.
Contrary to another diary on this lovefest, democrats get more campaign money from JP Morgan Chase than the repugs do- according to The Nation's piece. Sen. Mark Warner tops out the list at $108,800 bucks.
There is zero point to these so called hearings. Waste of time, waste of money.
http://www.thenation.com/...