thank you, republicans.

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  • #603599

    redblack
    Participant

    thank you for apologizing to jamie dimon for our government’s audacity in questioning His financial prowess when He lost almost $3 billion of creditors’ money. you showed great political will and courage.

    not.

    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/13/499153/senate-gop-dimon-regulated/?mobile=nc

    like bernie sanders said: “this isn’t a question of congress regulating wall street. it’s a question of wall street regulating congress.”

    #760930

    RobJ
    Member

    It was the bank’s equity. Learn about financials before you pretend to know what you are talking about. A 3% loss on ONE “bet”. Ohhhhh! Call the feds!

    #760931

    JanS
    Participant

    and where do banks get their money? from people…

    but what the hey, it’s only money, and doesn’t affect us…right?

    #760932

    Smitty
    Participant
    #760933

    redblack
    Participant

    Dimon was considered to be an Obama backer in 2008, but had a one-on-one chat with Mitt Romney earlier this year.

    nice try, smitty. :)

    by the way, your article doesn’t say whose presidential seal, does it? kind of intentionally vague, huh?

    #760934

    redblack
    Participant

    rob: i guess you don’t have a 401(k) at chase, huh?

    #760935

    skeeter
    Participant

    Banks get their money from three groups, depositors (customers), creditors (lenders) and investors (shareholders.) Only the money from depositors is guaranteed by taxpayers. Whose money are we talking about here? I think we’re talking about the investor’s money – which is not guaranteed by taxpayers or anyone else. If the bank makes a bad bet, the investors get decreased returns.

    #760936

    oddreality
    Participant

    I can’t see why they felt it necessary to apologize to him. They had every right to question him about it in this messed up financial climate.

    #760937

    kootchman
    Member

    Campaign time… ! Geesh…congress never called me in every time I lost money in a bad deal… I want my equal rights! Some ya win, some ya lose… if ya win most of the time, you are a good business. I hope congress was able to keep with that.

    #760938

    meg
    Member

    I think, on this topic, Americans can be completely ashamed of all their Congress. And I mean both Republicans and Democrats. The atmosphere in that Senate hearing was likened to a warm and loving family reunion. It was called a “Dimonpalooza”. We can now wait to see how the House does with their own JPM reunion, er hearing.

    In a nutshell, the core problems are “too-big-to-fail”, and congress staffers who become lobbyists. It really IS bad enough JPM is in the top contributors for many of the reelection campaigns in that room — (and GoldmanSachs is too). But besides that, US taxpayers have been made into funder of last resort, on the hook for JPM’s bad risks, because JPM is now deemed “too big to fail”. It used to be risk takers bore the losses of their risk taking, and the rewards too. That’s supposed to be a hallmark of capitalism. Now a modern banker hears “risk” and it sounds just like “reward”. There is no price for failure, because that’s the taxpayer role in “too big to fail”.

    Sorry, but I can no longer parse out the good from the bad in Washington DC.

    #760939

    JanS
    Participant

    hah…a friend of mine said that he thought they didn’t allow porn on cable…but there it was…congress kissing Dimon’s a$$…

    #760940

    kootchman
    Member

    Looks better than kissing Obama’s….. and cost us less too. what did we learn today kids? We learned that kindergarten children shouldn’t try and run the class. The teachers are smarter. Congress has us so intertwined with the banking and finance world we are unwitting passengers on ride we should not be on. Imagine.. hat was the gross profit for Chase that quarter … even with the 2 billion bet ? They are supposed to put capital at risk… that’s what businesses do. Every day.

    #760941

    miws
    Participant

    The teachers are smarter.

    ….unless they’re unionized, public school teachers huh, kootch?

    Mike

    #760942

    meg
    Member

    OK, JPM can put all the capital they desire at risk — just as long as they are really taking on that Full Risk, all the way to hell if necessary.

    Since the 2008 debacle, Dodd-Frank was supposed to stop banks’ proprietary trading. Dimon called this 2bn bet a “hedge”. But then he added they left the excess risk on the table b/c they were expecting a profit. WTF? Isn’t a hedge supposed to be essentially a balanced strike? You hedge against something unexpected that could upset your gains, right? It should be flat, not a profitable move. But these guys were actually betting, gambling, you know… and Dimon knew it. But guess what? He’s keeping his “too big to fail” bank structured the way it is (just the way he likes it) because he is “supposed” to no longer be doing that type of “trading”. You know? Since taxpayers are on the hook, if the bet is really bad, there are supposed to be regulations and law enforcements.

    That’s what’s so sick about the Senate hearing. Congress said, “Oh well, we’ll overlook that you are defying the law here, since your 2bn bet isn’t costing us (this time).”

    It’s like you’ve gotten pulled over doing 200MPH on the highway and you defend yourself this way: “But I hit no one, officer”. The cop replies, “OK, no ticket necessary ‘cuz you didn’t cause a accident, destroy property, or kill someone — we will just wait to slap your hand, until you do. Oh, by the way, how can you help us in law enforcement do a better job – we need your input, please. You’re so smart.”

    Tell me it ain’t so.

    p.s. forgot to add one more important fact. Others are watching. There are others driving at 200MPH too, and they just learned a whole lot in that hearing, about what’s up with law enforcement.

    #760943

    kootchman
    Member

    meg? They haven’t even finished writing Dodd Frank yet. No one knows what’s in it. Dodd Frank did not prohibit proprietary trading, yet…. the Volker rule sorta duplicated the old Glass-Steagall elements that Clinton repealed under his Banking Modernization Act. But as it is.. Volcker I believe isn’t in effect til next month? So he broke no laws. This exactly what Geitner is doing .. he is backstopping the Euro… what’s the diff? when ya watch the cops do 200 mph, swerve from lane to lane, … it sorta leads to .. “why not me”?

    #760944

    redblack
    Participant

    the Volker rule sorta duplicated the old Glass-Steagall elements that Clinton repealed under his Banking Modernization Act.

    LOL

    “can you say graham-leach-bliley?”

    [wink]

    “i knew you could.”

    so in the republican mind, clinton wrote the legislation and then signed it?

    remind me who controlled congress in ’99, please.

    #760945

    kootchman
    Member

    The pen maketh the law. He who signs the bill gets the credit. It doesn;t happen until he does. Remember in civics class? Checks and balances? I guess then we should give Newt credit for balancing the budget?

    #760946

    WorldCitizen
    Participant

    Oh let’s not kid ourselves here. Clinton is far from innocent. But that doesn’t absolve Republicans from eroding those protections for the prior 20 years.

    Clinton really screwed up by caving.

    #760947

    meg
    Member

    Kootchman, yes you’re right. I thought that section of D-F was already enacted, but I see its effective date is July 21, 2012. High fives to K-Street! Celebrate the Awesomeness.

    It’s been four years since Lehman collapsed and AIG was bailed out. Nothing on Wall Street deemed systemically important or too big to fail will EVER break any laws. Period. We can be grateful to the Awesomeness for that.

    And something else. Dems and Reps are both crap parties. Through many elections, I was a party girl. It’s over. I don’t care who’s officially in charge any longer, ‘cuz I can’t seem to vote for the real govt that sits on K-street. The shadow govt. is the real power and it grows larger. If I could join a party that chooses who sits there, I would!

    Hey speaking of our benevolent shadow govt, there’s nothing that makes it prouder these days than main street circuses where folks distract themselves by pointing fingers at each other’s parties. As if one were more evil than the other? We, the sad people of the United States, no longer can seem to elect any lasting influence for ourselves in this top-heavy government. But we can at least be truthful with each other about what IS going on. No?

    #760948

    rw
    Participant

    Jon Stewart did a great job of skewering these hearings. In particular, he highlighted how Sens. Jim DeMint and Robert Corker asked several whiffle ball questions about the inadequacy of Dodd-Frank……. when DeMint and Corker themselves were two of the key participants in gutting and neutering Dodd-Frank.

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june-14-2012/bank-yankers—jamie-dimon-on-capitol-hill

    #760949

    dbsea
    Member

    Wow, Meg! You saved me so much time by putting down all my thoughts for me. Thanks

    I too feel that both parties have sold us down the river. The Ds and Rs have a monopoly that is nearly impossible to break because they make all the rules. What a slick system it is !

    Of course not all elected reps. are whores or parasites but I honesly don’t have the time or energy to KNOW who is actually serving versus merely self serving.

    But without viable options to these parties how will we ever see any significant change? I truly believe we shouldn’t vote for incumbents, with the intention of breaking the system they’ve created. And while that throws out the good with the bad I can’t imagine how else it’ll happen.

    One term, do your actual honest to goodness public service, and then it’s back to private- citizenship and a JOB with no special retirement or health insurance courtesy of you and me.

    #760950

    kootchman
    Member

    get a paddle.. it gets worse

    http://www.salon.com/2012/06/14/trans_pacific_partnership_larger_than_nafta/singleton/

    BTW.. meg not that it makes a difference, I don’t like our exposure either.. but the AIG and Lehman TARP funds were repaid to the US Treasury yesterday,…with interest. Course they used newly minted money to do it… but…..

    As long as we are going down Jon Stewart Lane…

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-april-4-2011/victory-lapse—obama-transparency-award

    #760951

    meg
    Member

    Dbsea,

    Tenure limit, with no access to government afterward, would be a good thing though some think that the incumbent lobbyists & staffers, and the overall DC bureaucracies, would grow even more powerful in that scenario. But it is worth a try. Notice that the Awesomeness will howl in protest? I like to rate the howling as a positive indicator. Won’t be easy.

    #760952

    meg
    Member

    Lehman never received TARP funds, it collapsed, IIRC. I wasn’t referring to whether or not the bailout was repaid, or if Treasury reported it profitable or not. I was talking about hazards of “too big to fail” and that, 4 years later, we are here still with no real regulations or enforcements in place and yet the everpresent implicit US govt. guarantee to cover losses in giant banking enterprises with comingled depositor and investment money — and implicit guarantees for absolutely any other financial and non-financial that’s too big to fail. I’m sure the fuzzy math Treasury uses to show TARP-gains just paints a rosy picture for future bailouts. “See, no harm we can do it again.” Perhaps the US govt. can send our TARP to Europe, esp. since we’ve already proven the profitability, eh? (I am not saying you’re saying that – it’s just a rhetorical).

    About globalism partnerships, they’ve been with us for quite a while. Ross Perot was screaming about the flushing sound a long time ago. You remember those campaigns? We couldn’t see it – he was parodied on the media as a little brown troll and we were drilled the msg. that globalism was nirvana for everyone. Again, with the tribal stuff – red, blue, dem, rep? Sorry, both parties got dumped into the blender sometime ago, someone added a couple ice cubes, and pressed the “frappe” button. And now it’s the unaffordably expensive drink that tastes like crap, even with a tiny umbrella.

    From my own view, there is no big solution or answer in the wings that’s going to take care of the mess the US is in. We all might as well stop waiting for it. What’s happening in Europe is a preview for us, with our front-row seats to those events, and we have a little bit of time to munch some popcorn before it’s our turn.

    My own plan is to be local, as much as I can.

    #760953

    DBP
    Member

    Irony 101

    Anyone recognize this?

     

     

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