Thursday, May 30, 2013

A Flawed System That Suits the Shareholders Just Fine

Jesse Eisinger's Pro Publica article on J P Morgan Chase, where stockholders reaffirmed Jamie Dimon's dual role as CEO and Chairman of the Board, makes as if stockholders are delighted. Since I voted with my feet years ago, I really don't care.

My perspective regarding Jamie Dimon's tenure is that he was lucky to have the remnants of the J P Morgan Fool's Gold team that held him back from underwriting mortgages that did not make sense. When the 2008 crash came he had the fortress balance sheet that made him the darling of Wall Street and Washington, but last year's London Whale incident now leads me to believe the bright lights of old  are completely gone and the stupid people have been put in charge of risk.  TBTF banks look like utilities subsidized by the Federal Reserve. There is no current bank business model that can rake in extraordinary profits and therefore not of interest as an investment whether Jamie is chief cook and bottle washer or not.    

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Shareholders Denied Access to Chase Vote Results

There is no one who has dropped further and faster in my esteem than Jamie Dimon.

Big Banks get Break in Rules Limiting Risks

Today's front page article in the New York Times shows the power house bank lobby doing it's work at keeping instruments as opaque and profitable as possible. Well go ahead and let the bad boys play with themselves since the only believers that they offer a viable product are Wall Street banks.