Confident Much?
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon got a warm and fuzzy welcome from the Senate Banking Committee. In fact, they rolled out the red carpet for the notorious banker who just lost billions due to the "London Whale" hedge fund debacle now being investigated by the FBI. Senators were falling all over themselves asking softball questions, while Dimon sailed calmly through it and offered only non-apology apologies while his stock rose on Wall Street.
He knew he didn't have to show any real remorse because JP Morgan was a donor to everyone in the room including the Banking Committee Chairman. They are all in bed together.
New York Post called this The Cozy and the Clueless:
“We have let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it,” Dimon told the committee, which says it wants to know if the company is taking abnormal risk that could come back to bite taxpayers.On Huffington Post, Bill Moyers called this "Jamie Dimon's 'Family Reunion' With the Senate Banking Committee." His point was that all of the people on both sides of the aisle had either worked for Jamie Dimon or were looking forward to working for him someday. On his PBS Show he said: "This wasn't a hearing, it was a reunion of the Gambino family." LOL
In other words, was JPMorgan gambling instead of simply investing when one of its employees — nicknamed the “London Whale” by Wall Street — made trades Dimon said were originally meant as portfolio insurance but turned into something else?
I think it’s telling that this guy was known as a “whale.” That’s what casino high rollers are called in the gambling world. It’s fitting that the folks who were trading against the London Whale knew that he was a gambler but that senators, who have been stalling for years on reforming regulations in the financial industry, are clueless.
Yesterday’s hearing reminded me of when Captain Renault in the movie “Casablanca” goes into Rick’s and feigns shock at what’s going on.
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here,” Renault says, you’ll recall.
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