The Jamie Dimon piece in today’s Washington Post is a must-read. Dimon, head of behemoth JPMorgan Chase makes the best case for not breaking up large too-big-to-fail financial institutions. His idea: set up a robust resolution process and let reckless lenders fail regardless of size.
Now, back in September, I attended a meeting at the Clinton [...]

In a 9-page Vanity Fair article “Wall Street’s Near-Death Experience,”giving us a sneak peek into the lives of bankers during the global meltdown last Autumn a hilarious quote of great significance was buried.
At issue was the near-death experience that Lehman’s demise caused for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. After receiving a mysterious call from JPMorgan [...]

While Citi and BofA are getting taken to the woodshed for double secret probation, JPMorgan Chase is showing record revenue of $25.6 billion and a large profit of $2.7 billion.  As profit is up 36% from a year earlier and 27% from just last quarter, you can see that JPM is now firing on all [...]

The following Bloomberg article points out why I have repeatedly argued that banks will be earning a lot of money, Meredith Whitney’s counter-arguments notwithstanding. It also points out why the likes of John Hempton believe that the FDIC ‘stole’ Washington Mutual from shareholders and awarded it to JPMorgan, a view I have not supported (hat [...]

On the back of a decent quarter at JPMorgan Chase, CEO Jamie Dimon has signalled his desire to repay government money as quickly as possible and remove the strings attached to that money.  Dimon has often said that JPMorgan Chase did not need the TARP bailout money it has received and only accepted  because it [...]

Chris Whalen, a well-regarded bank analyst, ran an interview piece with Nouriel Roubini on Barry Ritholtz’s site. The conversation was very illuminating and I highly recommend reading the whole post linked below. However, I wanted to point out a quote from Chris in the piece that I find significant in light of the recent dividend [...]

From MarketWatch:

J.P. Morgan Chase said late Monday that its board cut the company’s quarterly dividend to 5 cents from 38 cents, effective for the dividend payable April 30. “The board anticipates maintaining this level for the time being. This action will enable the company to retain an additional $5 billion in common equity per year,” [...]

We heard testimony before the House Banking Committee in Washington today. The CEOs of eight large financial institutions are being raked over the coals by Congress. It was a scene which reminded me of the Pecora Hearings during the Great Depression. It was also one which is being repeated in London.

The Congressmen are ludicrously indignant — after all, Congress has been complicit in the state of affairs. One member of Congress asked the men (there are no women) to raise their hand to questions on several occassions like schoolboys in a classroom — questions akin to “when did you stop beating your wife.”

I see these proceedings as more show trial to reassure the public than anything substantive. Nevertheless, they are entertaining. Below are videos of the opening statements from each of the CEOs. You might find their comments illuminating regarding their thinking now that the economy has collapsed and they have needed governement assistance.

You should also note that not all of these banks are in a precarious way. Some are better off than others.

Marshall Auerback here. I wanted to add a few thoughts to the discussion about recent events in U.S. banking. Below is the Federal Reserve press release on the Bank of America bailout. Here are the most important words from the release:

where the debt is supported by collateral and the issuance supports new consumer lending.

The carrot and stick in the paragraph in red above and below is something brand new and out of the box. It is surprising that it came on Bush’s watch but it has Obama’s fingers all over it. This is a big new push by the government and it has Barney Frank and Shelia Bair’s names all over it.

JPMorgan Chase moved up its earnings announcement to today in order to surprise the market with better than expected earnings. The company reported full-year income of $5.6 billion and 4th-quarter income of $702 million or $0.07 a share, beating consensus estimates of $0.01 a share. You should note, these numbers do not include the estimated $31.2 billion of writedowns associated with the Washington Mutual transaction. But, folks, for banks, this is as good as it gets.