JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon was the only U.S. banking chief who showed up. He made a concession to the mood of this year’s event by accepting some blame for the collapse that has led to more than $1 trillion of writedowns. He deflected the rest at regulators.
“God knows, some really stupid things were done by American banks and by American investment banks,” Dimon said. “To policy makers, I say: ‘Where were they?’”
I know! I know!
The regulators were either:
1. Gone, because the Conservative
movement you guys funded and believed in drowned their agency in a bathtub, or
2. Getting ready to walk through the revolving door and make the big bucks with you.
In other case, no regulation got done.
Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Can't you understand? You're a fully paid of member the ruling class.* That's why you're at Davos! And, as Arthur Silber is fond of remarking, "It's called the ruling class because it rules. Of course, that doesn't mean you're intelligent, or competent, or even capable of surviving when the environment changes. But it does mean that you own the policy, and you own the economy. All the way.
Why don't we make the banks into regulated public utilities, so people can pay for credit the way they pay for the light bill?
NOTE * See David Broder.
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"Where were they?"
Dimon to regulator A thru Z:
JFK has been shot, we miss him a lot
He always knew what to do
-- Philly Cream
Now is that polite, Mr. Kohn?
Remember every time you call a regulator a corrupt, entrenched brownnoser, an angel sprains its wings....
"Why Obama Will Fail"-This Seeing the Forest post has been
intriguing me for days and seems to fit under the topic of where is the regulation/what are the regulators doing, etc. The linky goodness is in Dave Johnson's post, so give him some clicky goodness during BAD (I have no idea of his sitemeter numbers).
More and more, those who wondered about why the Big Banker Boiz supported Obama very early on, with large contributions, seem to be getting their answers.
As the Senate continues to retool the Obama Stimulus bill, we see more of what Obama sees as priorities. He has assured Repubs that the bill will change and will include only those things which will actually work. (Where was he when the House bill was being crafted, btw???)
If he sees taxcuts as "working" as stimulus, we are in deep doodoo. If he sees propping up the Big Banster Boiz, again, deep doodoo.
BTW, on Democracy Now today, David Cay Johnston did say that Obama may be sorely mistaken if he thinks he can get more stiimulus bills out of Congress, that that if this one doesn't work the Repubs will dig in their heels and bray loudly that what Obama and Dems had tried has failed, so no more such money. Time for taxcuts, of course. He thinks Obama should go for a stimulus amount which is even bigger than anyone in his admin is talking about, but make it clear that if the stimulus is not needed it will not be spend. But it will be there. Oh, and taxcuts are not the kind of stimulus needed (iirc correctly)....
"We’d like to do our best to preserve that system.”
I think there's a lot of mileage to be had out of that one....
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Galling
Are you serious? This is one of those moments you want to punch folks like him right in the nose. Before I got to his rhetorical questions, I was simply thinking "notice the agency" of his words. It's just a step above "mistakes were made" and he never specifically implicated his own place of employment. And, that all would have been bad enough. I simply can't believe he had the gall to then pass all of the responsibility to the government, but he did.
And, the GOP's House of Cards continues to fall. They love to preach "personal responsibility" that is, unless its about themselves.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...