Search Results for: JPMorgan

By Pam Martens: May 14, 2012 Jamie Dimon, the red-faced Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who last week reported a $2 billion trading loss at the firm, has a rare quality.  He talks really fast, uses a lot of plain, folksy words, and leaves us dumber than when he started speaking. It feels like Dimon is hoping to talk fast enough and call himself stupid often enough that no one  notices that he hasn’t told us a thing we need to know: Like – exactly how did you lose $2 billion of your depositors’ money? Like – when will you cut your losses short and unwind this “stupid” trade? Like – why haven’t you already unwound this “stupid” trade? Like – how is this different from AIG Financial Products selling credit default insurance, collecting the big quarterly premiums on that insurance to boost revenues, profits and pay big bonuses … Continue reading →

May 1, 2012 Members of the New York City Council and participants in the Occupy Wall Street protests filed a lawsuit in Federal Court on April 29, chronicling an out of control New York City Police Department that is systematically crushing civil rights and quashing dissent through brutal force, lies, cover-ups and attempting to block both mainstream media and citizen journalists from covering the illegal acts. A stunning video reminiscent of brutal dictator regimes that documents the police brutality and crackdown on peaceful protestors was included in the exhibits provided to the court.  The video can be viewed here: The lawsuit charges the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, and Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, with conspiring with private corporations to suppress the constitutional rights of citizens.  JPMorgan Chase is named as a defendant in the lawsuit and one of the co-conspirators for illegally blocking access to a public plaza. Despite the lawsuit, the NYPD was … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: April 27, 2012  Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global, the financial firm that collapsed with a $1.6 billion hole in customer accounts, has wealth, a top criminal attorney, and political clout in Washington.  But there’s another lesser known John in the MF Global story who is proving himself to be a tenacious thorn in the side of the former U.S. Senator and Governor from New Jersey.   John Roe has what Jon Corzine should fear most: he’s an industry executive and former insider at the predecessor firm of MF Global — Refco, Inc. — and understands how its accounting technology works.  He’s not buying the “official” story that $1.6 billion of customer money just innocently fell into the wrong hands during the last week of the firm’s existence.  Since MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 31, 2011, Roe has led a whirlwind assault on … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: February 20, 2012 Beginning on the evening of February 8 and throughout the next two days, every newsroom in those expensive media real estate offices was running with the government press release that the  $25 billion agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and 49 state attorneys general was a “foreclosure” settlement.  Turns out, it was a “mortgage fraud settlement” made before the public could be informed of the depths of the mortgage fraud and how it was collusively perpetrated.  Here’s a sampling of how the story was spun.  (Italic emphasis added.)  Feb. 8 (New York Times) “…It is part of a broad national settlement aimed at halting the housing market’s downward slide and holding the banks accountable for foreclosure abuses.”  Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) – “Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and three other U.S. banks reached a $25 billion settlement with 49 states and the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens Until Occupy Wall Street gained a national stage, dialogue on the economic crisis had focused on symptoms: bailouts, corruption on Wall Street, collapse in housing prices, intractable unemployment, too-big-to-fail or manage financial institutions.  The disease itself, debilitating wealth concentration, took a backseat in the national dialogue.  Those who attempted to address the subject were regularly met with screams of being a Socialist.  An insidious process of being socialized to silence prevailed.  By moving that topic to the forefront, Occupy Wall Street has opened the mouths and the minds of a Nation. The people who were screaming “Socialist” the loudest weren’t the super rich who control the wealth; they’re part of a labyrinthine network of hired hands who function as high pitch bodyguards for the wealth hoarders.  The actual super rich are the folks who appear on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans; people like Charles and David Koch, each worth $25 billion, who create multi layers of front groups, … Continue reading →