Chairman Dimon Speaks...
“It’s
almost an embarrassment being an American traveling around the world,” Dimon,
61, said on a conference call with analysts. He doesn’t
like listening to the “stupid shit” Americans have to deal with, expressing
frustration over the nation’s inability to invest in infrastructure and
overhaul the tax code. “There would be much stronger growth if there were more
intelligent decisions and less gridlock.”
- Bloomberg: Dimon Says Being an American Abroad Is ‘Almost an Embarrassment’
By J.M. Hamilton. (7-15-2017)
Poor Mr. Dimon... It appears that he had
a rough week.
Mr. Dimon appears shocked, perhaps angry,
and almost embarrassed about the United States.
Normally, we might chock this up to
just another tantrum from the C-Suite aristocracy, but this story
bears scrutiny.
Mr. Dimon's frustrations
seems reminiscent of another billionaire's behavior, who recently was
elected to the White House.
Things, so far, didn't go quite as expected. The
various branches of government did not yield to the billionaire’s every
command.
Who knew democracy could be so messy?
Ah, the perils of being a billionaire, where nearly every executive below you is often found toadying up. The bubble
envelopes said plutocrat. Pretty soon
the expectation becomes, from said CEO, one’s every word should be treated as
gospel, and w/in the corporate citadel often is.
If only the lackeys in the House & Senate
would listen, as well?
Lord knows JP Morgan - and the Wall Street
cartel - certainly paid enough for the Congress to listen. Maybe
that's at the root of Mr. Dimon's concerns, the failure of Congress to
enact Wall Street lobbyist diktats?
After all, Goldman Sachs runs the White House, and perhaps soon enough
The Fed.
Speculating further upon Mr. Dimon’s thinking,
perhaps a hostile takeover of Congress is in order?
Such ingratitude after America saved Mr. Dimon's
career and his company from near certain ruin.
One wouldn't know it from Mr. Dimon's outburst
this week, but he was on an investor call reporting that J.P. Morgan had made a
record $26.5 billion over the last 12 months, and enjoyed a record second
quarter.
One might assume that all the regulations Wall
Street lawyers and lobbyist wrote into Dodd Frank had a perilous
impact upon J.P. Morgan’s earnings. No, instead, JP Morgan is reporting
record earnings. Maybe that explains his remarks?
How quickly Wall Street royalty forget...
In 2008, if this country had a legal system
that functioned and wasn't rigged, Mr. Dimon, and his Wall Street comrades, might have
found themselves behind bars for exploiting moral hazard/depositor & taxpayer money on an
unprecedented scale, and short selling America, stockholders, and banking
clients (in a debt securitization scam).
Instead of receiving a multi-trillion dollar bailout, Mr. Dimon - in a
truly capitalist system - might have seen his career and his company vanish;
instead of the Federal Reserve taking, then, toxic assets off Wall Street
bank balance sheets, those failing assets could have been left on Wall Street
bank balance sheets, setting off a cascading collapse. The record liquidity
(trillions) pumped into the various markets - to re-inflate assets -
might not have occurred (Thank the heavens, the Fed answers to its true mandate: Wall Street banks and the stock market).
J.P. Morgan and Wall Street banks could have been nationalized, and
effectively were nationalized, except the high flyer executives - who
brought the global economy to ruin - kept their jobs. Main Street, however, they weren't so lucky. Over leveraged families - and small
& medium sized businesses - were shit out of luck (no bailouts
for them); nor did the prior administration - or prior Fed chairman - tie
any strings to all the free money and bailouts that were showered upon the Wall
Street banks (personal debt restructuring, debt forgiveness on home
loans, which would have sparked the economy: forget about it). In the intervening years, since the 2008 Wall
Street debacle, instead of serving in prison, Mr. Dimon became a
billionaire. Since 2010, loan to deposit ratios steadily declined throughout the banking industry, hence helping
to keep inflation in check and the free money flowing from the Fed.
Of course, shadow banking & private equity
were exempt from Wall Street’s capital strike, since the crisis.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan and the Wall Street
banking cartel - flush w/ free money from the Fed - led one of the largest
M&A booms ever witnessed. The
consolidation of many sectors of the economy - advised, financed, &
underwritten by Wall Street banks - as JMH reported in our last piece -
killed jobs & opportunity, and played a significant role in wage
stagnation and wage & wealth inequality (again,
effectively sterilizing the Federal Reserve's largesse from the general public, holding inflation in check,
and keeping the Fed's cash spigot turned on).
So much for trickle down monetary policy…
And now Mr. Dimon has the unmitigated gall to
whine about an opioid epidemic, Wall Street banks, directly & indirectly,
played a significant role in creating.
When workers don't have hope, jobs, or
opportunity (due to free trade agreements, industry consolidation, and the
offshoring of labor)... they often - in despair - turn to substances that allow
them to escape their poverty and their reality.
And sometimes - through excess and
misadventure - they end up... dead.
One wonders - w/ Mr. Dimon being so bright and
all - does any of this ever enter into his stream of consciousness? Or perhaps the more appropriate question is: Does Mr. Dimon have a conscience?
But for the grace of the Goddess above, go I.
Mr. Dimon, in a recent shareholder letter, lamented
that the number of publicly traded companies had been cut in half. The drop in the number of publicly traded
companies is bad for business, the economy, investors, labor, the tax base
& the United States. And yet, Mr.
Dimon does not acknowledge Wall Street banking’s outsized role in eliminating
and consolidating all these publicly traded companies.
Once again, here is a criminal enterprise –
Wall Street banks – working against the interests of the United States and the
vast majority of the American people.
Maybe we'll have a POTUS Dimon some day, and he
can show us how it all works.
Wouldn't that be special?
Then again, given how the current White House
occupant is faring, perhaps another CEO POTUS is not what the nation needs.
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