By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 26, 2021 ~
Below are selected remarks from Jamie Dimon’s prepared statement for the Senate Banking Committee hearing today, which will take testimony from a total of six Wall Street bank CEOs. Wall Street On Parade’s annotated remarks appear in brackets and italics.
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Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase
“Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Toomey and distinguished members of the Committee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you to talk about JPMorgan Chase, the strength and resilience of the U.S. financial system, and the people, businesses and communities we serve.”
[The strength of the U.S. financial system would, of course, be a lot safer and sounder if the largest bank in the U.S., at which Dimon serves as Chairman and CEO, had not been charged with five felony counts since 2014, all occurring under his leadership. The bank admitted to all five counts.]
“JPMorgan Chase is a global financial services firm with assets of $3.4 trillion and operations worldwide. We are a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management.”
[As for exactly how JPMorgan Chase interacts with consumers, see its rap sheet. JPMorgan Chase also has the distinction of being the riskiest bank in the U.S.]
“Banks play an essential role in a community, with the potential of bringing people together, enabling companies and individuals to reach their dreams, and being a source of strength in difficult times.”
[Actually, rather than being a source of strength in difficult times, the mega banks on Wall Street required $29 trillion in bailouts from the Fed from 2007 to the middle of 2010 to keep the entire U.S. financial system from collapsing.]
“We are living through extraordinary times, for which history will judge the leaders of government and industry by the actions we take to address the health crisis, support the people and businesses suffering from the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic, and address longstanding structural inequities and racial economic inequality.”
[On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Jamie Dimon’s compensation to oversee the bank in 2020, which included admitting to two new felony counts on September 29, 2020, was set at $31.5 million by his Board of Directors. One of those 2020 felony counts related to rigging the U.S. Treasury market, the market that makes it possible for the U.S. government to pay its bills and help struggling Americans during a national health crisis.]
“We were proud to have participated in various Federal Reserve emergency programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program, Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Commercial Paper Funding Facility, Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility and the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, among others.”
[The Paycheck Protection Program was created to help main street businesses. The Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, and the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility were created to bail out the Wall Street banks. The American people still have not received a report on just which Wall Street banks received bailouts under those three programs. In addition, the Fed pumped more than $6 trillion into Wall Street banks in repo loans from September 17, 2019 to January, 2020 – before any pandemic had been declared. The public has yet to see a breakdown of which banks got that bailout money.]
“We have an equitable and well-governed approach to compensation…”
[Just how equitable and well-governed is JPMorgan Chase? See If You’re Baffled as to Why JPMorgan Chase’s Board Hasn’t Sacked Jamie Dimon as the Bank Racked Up 5 Felony Counts – Here’s Your Answer; also see: JPMorgan Paid a Board Member $532,500 in 2016; Now the Board is Getting a 25 Percent Cash Pay Hike.]
“We have unwavering principles that are not just about a fortress balance sheet, but also about risk management and culture.”
[Seriously? In 2013 the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations probed how JPMorgan Chase had gambled in risky derivatives (in the infamous London Whale trades) using deposits from its federally-insured bank. The bank lost at least $6.2 billion. Jamie Dimon was the bank’s Chairman and CEO at the time. The Chair of the Senate Subcommittee at the time, Carl Levin, said this: “Our findings open a window into the hidden world of high stakes derivatives trading by big banks. It exposes a derivatives trading culture at JPMorgan that piled on risk, hid losses, disregarded risk limits, manipulated risk models, dodged oversight, and misinformed the public.” Since that time, the bank has been charged and admitted to five felony counts in other matters. No other federally-insured bank in U.S. history has ever been charged with five felony counts. And yet, Jamie Dimon has the audacity to appear before the U.S. Senate today and brag about his bank’s “unwavering principles.”]
