MEOW AND MORE FOR ME

J.P. Morgan/Chase, the largest American bank, got slapped around, deservedly, these last few days after the derivative scandal of a billion in losses (actually 2 but offset by some other gain) from their greedy London trader, aka London Whale or Valdemort.

To his credit---not that he had much choice---Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Morgan/Chase, admitted they screwed up. He also refuses to stop fighting against the application of the so-called Volker Rule to forbid banks from such speculation with their own money, part of the Dodd-Frank banking act. The government is wrong to try to control banks., says Dimon., and should allow them free rein.

I call it the Fat Cat Syndrome, and it is rife among the rich and powerful. If you are loaded with money, you don’t want anything or anyone to kill the proverbial golden goose. The fact that the primary objective originally of banks was to be a safe haven for people’s money is totally irrelevant to the high rollers of today. They want to stress the opportunity to maximize profits in investments, in playing with their depositors’ money and even betting against their clients when you can make a buck by selling short. The moral issues of short sales against their customers just don’t seem to register.

They develop arrogance, an absolute certitude in their decision-making powers and their own infallibility. Occasionally, not often enough, they get their teeth kicked in but then revert back to their own sense of worth and self-justification. I suppose you would crumble into little bits if you admitted you could be wrong..

This kind of arrogance is tough on those who play by the rules. It would appear that the Jamie Dimons of the world only like those rules that they invent. Greed is greed by any other name…

Unfortunately, it is not confined to bankers but a whole colony of fat cats of different stripes and configurations.