Just because euphoria has returned to the stock market, do not forget that hundreds of billions of dollars of your money is being confiscated and given to the wealthiest and sleaziest class in our society.
Business As Usual (Baseline Scenario)
Permit me to provide some context. Jamie Dimon is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan received $25 billion in TARP money. JPMorgan is issuing bonds insured by the FDIC. Almost exactly one year ago, JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns with a $29 billion back-stop from the Federal Reserve. And since the Fed remits its profits to the Treasury, this represents your tax dollars, too. So far, $3 billion of that back-stop has been consumed; search for “Maiden Lane” in the H.4.1 release. (Do not ask about Maiden Lane II and Maiden Lane III. OK, if you insist, the executive summary is “AIG”.)
Remember all this when Jamie Dimon talks about how “well-capitalized” and “strong” and “profitable” his firm is.
What a great system we have. If you use a credit card, these guys get your money. If you have a mortgage, these guys get your money. If you have a student loan or small business loan or any other kind of loan, these guys get your money. And now, if you pay taxes, these guys get your money.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said the U.S. can rescue its banking system by the end of the year if officials start cooperating and stop the “vilification” of corporate America.
See? To “vilify” bankers is to attack “corporate America”. Financiers, industrialists, people curing cancer… It’s all the same. Go, team!
“If we act like a dysfunctional family and we don’t finish these things and we’re forever debating them, I think this will go on for several years,” Dimon, 52, said at a conference hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. “It’s completely up to us at this point.”
Translation: “Shut up and hand over more money, or you’ll be sorry.” That is precisely what our government is doing, and there is nothing you or I can do about it.
Finally, I want to repeat that Bank of America is a criminal enterprise. Inspired by Cato the Elder, I am considering making this the last line of every post for a while.
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