Exceprts from a blog post by Heidi Moore via Congress hosts Dimonpalooza with financial reform on the back burner | Business | guardian.co.uk..
There’s a reason wags called it “Dimonpalooza.”
…The only notable absences were at the front of the room, where the Senators sat; several of their empty seats were testimony to the fact that at least a few members of the banking committee believed they had better things to do than press Dimon…
Many of the senators were happy to absolve Dimon, for a few reasons.
The first is that… there are too many big failures in bank risk-management – and too many European banks in dodgy financial positions – to dwell on the relatively manageable problems of one bank.
Another reason is that regulatory reform in the United States has hit the shoals… Both Democrats and Republicans dislike being reminded of the shortcomings of the effort for financial reform…
… few men – or women – in the room would stand up for the US’s regulatory reform efforts. Dimon’s testimony only gave lawmakers a chance to hold a wake for the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill…
Then, also, Dimon was certainly well-advised; his consiglieres include Washington veterans Stephen Cutler and Bill McLucas, former key financial enforcement officials…
[Lee Adler’s comment- Washington pigs feeding at the Wall Street trough.]
And the most important reason is that everyone in the room acknowledged that even more – or different – regulation can’t protect banks from their own bad decisions. No one has yet resolved how to square that fact with the reality that American taxpayers may once again be on the hook if those decisions go bad on a massive scale, as they did in 2008…
Indeed, it was startling how often Dimon’s views were aligned with those of the committee members…
Senator Jim DeMint opened his questions with a little love letter…
Many will say that the questions should have been tougher – and they would be right. But the problem with JP Morgan’s bad trade is not that it happened at JP Morgan; it’s that it can happen anywhere…
Because she is much more polite and subtle than I am, Heidi Moore did not state the biggest reason the Senate pigs were so nice to Dimon. Bribery. They are all on the take.
Audio from Marketplace:
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