Robert Scheer: Obama Can’t Knock the Hustle

[marmar]

from truthdig:



Obama Can’t Knock the Hustle

Posted on May 17, 2012
By Robert Scheer


How did we end up with such smart scoundrels? Even after it was known that Jamie Dimon’s bank blew more than $2 billion on the same suspect derivatives trading that has bankrupted the world’s economy, Barack Obama still had praise for the intellect of his political backer and the integrity of the bank he heads: “JPMorgan is one of the best-managed banks there is,” the president told the hosts of ABC’s “The View” in an interview televised Tuesday, adding, “Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got. And they still lost $2 billion and counting.”

A lesser bank would have gone under and needed to be bailed out, Obama argued: “That’s why Wall Street reform is so important.” But even when fully implemented, Obama’s tepid reforms would not have stopped this scam and will not stop the others that are sure to follow. Being one of the smartest bankers means you are among those who best know how to skirt the law or, if that cannot be done, how to successfully lobby to gut it.

Dimon understands and performs this drill well, for he was in cahoots with his mentor, Sandy Weill, in engineering a series of mergers and acquisitions that would have violated the Glass-Steagall law, which for decades had prohibited commingling investment and commercial banking. The two business executives were able to get Congress and President Bill Clinton to reverse Glass-Steagall, a change that made legal the creation of Citigroup, the too-big-to-fail bank that eventually was saved from bankruptcy only through an immense taxpayer bailout.

The best and the brightest in this case are the bane of the nation because their genius lies in outwitting all efforts to hold them accountable. Dimon, the most recent in a parade of now-disgraced Wall Street golden boys, was nonetheless just awarded $24 million in compensation for 2011 by JPMorgan. Like his mentor Weill, who ran Citigroup into derivative trading hell, Dimon will no doubt suffer little legal unpleasantness or social ostracism stemming from his dodgy behavior. Weill will soon be inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences as an outstanding business leader and philanthropist. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obama_cant_knock_the_hustle_20120517/

[sad sally]

1. Isn't it great that the President thinks Dimon is one of the smartest bankers around?

What's wrong with this picture? What's wrong with the current system? Oh, nothing - we've got one of the smartest bankers getting the President's praises for skirting the law. If Democrats believe this, it's proof we've become a nation of clueless drones, tracked by drones, killed by drones if we don't obey our masters - the politicians and the bankers.

[Myrina]

2. +100

Shows us all which side really rules at 1600. Doesn't matter what color tie he wears or what party POTUS comes from, they all bow to their Bankster-Masters.

[dennis4868]

3. when did Obama say that....

Dimon is one of the smartest bankers around?

[sad sally]

5. here

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--President Barack Obama on Monday called J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) one of the nation's best-managed banks and its embattled chief executive, Jamie Dimon, one of the country's smartest banking executives.

"JPMorgan is one of the best-managed banks there is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got, and they still lost $2 billion and counting," the president said in an interview with ABC's "The View" that will air Tuesday morning.

The president's comments were his first public remarks since J.P. Morgan disclosed last week it had lost more than $2 billion in complex derivatives trading. The president has been a leading proponent of new regulations for big banks, and his comments suggest the loss could become fodder on the campaign trail. The president said his likely Republican presidential rival, Mitt Romney, has a different vision for how Wall Street should operate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120514-718017.html

[dennis4868]

4. Obama's Sec of the treasurer...

is telling Dimon to resign....what a crazy post. This is the problem with many on DU...they take things out of context and mislead in order to find a way to bash Obama.

[sad sally]

6. Elizabeth Warren is the one who said Dimon should step down, not Geithner

"It's a problem that the structure of the Fed established 90 years ago... creates that basic perception and I think that’s something worth trying to change," Geithner told PBS. "But the American people should understand that although the Fed was set up that way, those banks and the members of the board play no role in supervision, they have no role in the writing of the rules and they play no role in decisions the Fed makes about how to respond to the financial crisis."

The comments came in response to Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who said earlier this week that Dimon should step down from the New York Federal Reserve board in the wake of his bank's $2 billion trading loss.

Geithner, a former president of the New York Fed himself, has himself been criticized for being too close with some of the bankers he once oversaw. Liberal talk show host Rachel Maddow slammed Geithner in an interview in 2010, saying she was "concerned" that during his time at the New York Fed, in which he helped oversee Wall Street bailouts, he didn’t press for reforms at the financial institutions in question.

Geithner also reportedly met with Dimon in March to discuss the Volcker rule, according to Bloomberg, a financial reform provision that Dimon has often criticized. Some Wall Street critics say that the ban on banks trading with their own money could have prevented JPMorgan's huge loss, which lost the bank $2 billion and counting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/timothy-geithner-jamie-dimon_n_1525812.html

[Enrique]

7. kick