JP MorganChase

On May 10, 2012 the Federal Reserve cleared China’s first takeover of a US bank. On May 11 we heard JPMorgan-Chase lost $2 billion in 6 weeks; the CEO who earns $23 million a year blamed the loss on errors, sloppiness and bad judgment. It was said that a tax loophole allowed the risky trading; the company’s credit rating was downgraded and their stock fell 12% losing the company another $20 billion. On May 14 the Chief Investment Officer, who made $15 million and is #8 on the Forbes list of highest paid women, stepped down along with 2 other executives. The CEO said the company made $19 billion in 2011 and with the losses it’s still valued at $137 billion. On May 15 shareholders voted to keep the CEO and let him keep his pay. On May 17 it was reported that they lost at least $3 billion.

Some said the company may have violated the Volcker Rule and this situation is more reason to have tougher regulations. The Volcker Rule is a specific section of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform (passed May 2010) and Consumer Protection Act. It was originally proposed by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to restrict US banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments that do not benefit their customers as such speculative activity played a key role in the financial crisis of 2007–2010. Due to concerns of the banking industry and Republicans an amendment to the Dodd-Frank law was initiated and took until February 2012 to pass. The rule, which ended up with a number of exceptions to the ban on commercial banks conducting proprietary trading (deposits are used to trade on the bank's own accounts) is to go into effect July 21, 2012. However, during his report to Congress on February 29, 2012, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank and other regulators won’t meet that deadline.

On May 12 we heard innovators and creative people are the ones that become rich and that the rich think we shouldn’t close the incentives that allow for becoming ultra rich as they are needed. And, a Gallup poll showed that 63% of Americans think we benefit from having a rich class, 34% did not; I guess the other 3% are undecided. In any case these poll numbers were unchanged from 30 years ago. I personally think creative and innovative people have it in their blood and wouldn’t stop because they make millions instead of billions of dollars.

On May 15 the President on the View said that JPMorgan is one of the better managed banks but even if you’re smart you can make mistakes; which is why they passed Wall Street Reform. Banks are insured by the taxpayers and we don’t want them (the banks) taking risks so they have to be bailed out again. If we get the rules that were proposed/passed by Congress implemented it shouldn’t happen again; there are still those fighting it. The President said he feels our banks should invest in small businesses and homeowners and not risky investment deals. On this same date, the President was pressuring regulators to enforce the Wall Street Reform that was passed 2 years ago and we heard the FBI is opening an investigation into the JP Morgan investment losses.

On April 25, 2 dozen protesters were arrested outside a Wells Fargo shareholders meeting. On May 1 (International Workers Day) the Occupy Movement all over the country protested; 7 New York City banks received threatening notes with white powder (corn starch) inside, in San Francisco they broke windows and used spray paint on buildings, in Oakland tear gas was fired on protesters, at least 9 were arrested and in Seattle protestors smashed windows and disrupted traffic. I’m not saying these tactics are right but at least a handful of people are standing up for the Americans that are unfairly treated by rich people and/or companies.

My first reaction to the JP Morgan shareholder vote and the Gallup poll was - how f..king stupid are we. Now I know why the Occupy Movement isn’t getting the support it should. There are too many upper middle class in this country that don’t care about the poor, the people who have lost jobs or homes, or the ones that have lost their retirement because of Wall Street investments and blame the President instead of Wall Street for the problems.

It was not a surprise that Romney took the Oregon and Nebraska primaries as there is no one left to really oppose him. It was disappointing to hear that in the May 7 West Virginia Democratic primary an inmate got 40% of the votes. The Huffington Post consolidated 289 polls including those from Rasmussen, Fox, Gallup, Christian Science Monitor, YouGov, the Daily Kos, Washington Times, and Angus-Reid from May 7 through May 16 and the results were Obama 44.7, Romney 44.1%. Foxnews.com reported that Obama was gaining the support of Independents while other polls found Romney gaining support from women. 

The President gives us a lot more credit than we deserve as a people – he thinks you’ll wake up to the Republican deceit and do the right thing and vote him back in because he does care about us all and wants us to get a fair shake.