I mean, this is pretty funny--except it's pathetic, bizarre and, ultimately, gives all of us a great window on the "they haven't learned anything" culture on Wall Street and the business world in general. Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan (and the Ten of Hearts in the 52 deck-of cards Audacity of Greed), is complaining about new regulatory rules and, get this, blaming those rules for the slow economic recovery. You cannot make this up.
The Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Bernanke, speaking before a group of international bank executives, including Mr. Dimon, said the changes to financial oversight in the Dodd-Frank financial law were necessary.
"While it is true there are a lot of regulations in the pipeline there is a good reason why financial regulation has been reformed," Mr. Bernanke said.
The most pointed comments Tuesday came from Mr. Dimon, who has been vocal about the effect regulatory changes are having on the banking industry. Ticking off a list of changes to financial markets over the past three years, Mr. Dimon said he feared someone would write a book soon about how government overreach had hurt the economic recovery.[emphasis added]
The Financial Times:
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, questioned Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, at an Atlanta conference on Tuesday and suggested that a slew of regulations – such as plans for an additional capital charge for large banks – were hurting the economy.
“Has anyone bothered to study the cumulative effect of all these things?” Mr Dimon asked. “And do you have a fear, like I do, that when we look back and look at them ... they will be a reason that it took so long that our banks, our credit, our businesses, and most importantly, job creation started going again?”
Hmmm...so, let's get this straight.
The financial industry runs a massive scam on the American people--resulting in the greatest housing debacle in generations, a debacle in which millions lose their homes and jobs.
The industry is able to perpetuate that scam/fraud in large part because of the de-regulation movement--aided and abetted by Democrats in the Clinton Administration, as well as Republicans--that undid, among other things, the regulation under Glass-Steagall.
Because people lose their jobs due to the crisis, they don't have money to spend--hence consumer spending (two-thirds of economic activity) is sluggish.
And because people lose their jobs, they can't pay their mortgages--even those people who weren't scammed into mortgages they wouldn't be able to pay even in normal times--and, then, banks foreclose on them, throwing them into the streets...and creating a surplus of homes, further impinging on the housing market and construction of new homes--which hurts the economy.
And, because we are entirely obsessed bya phony debt and deficit "crisis", no one wants to have the political courage to push for a massive new stimulus to make up for the inadequate 2009 stimulus--and, so, among other things, states and cities have to lay off thousands of people who, then, can't spend money--further hurting the economic recovery.
I get why Dimon doesn't like regulation--he wants to be able to enrich himself even more...not that the new regulations will really stop that.
But, to then blame the economic crisis and recovery on the Dodd-Frank regulations is just plain goofy.