A couple of new stories from the Financial Times this morning based on an interview with JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon that are notable for tone and substance, though we've heard these complaints before from Dimon, specifically in his infamous public rebuke of Bernanke caught on tape earlier this Summer:
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Jamie Dimon Interview
New international bank capital rules are “anti-American” and the US should consider pulling out of the Basel group of global regulators, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has said. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Dimon said he was supportive of forcing banks to have more capital but argued that moves to impose an additional charge on the largest global banks went too far, particularly for American banks.
- “I’m very close to thinking the United States shouldn’t be in Basel any more. I would not have agreed to rules that are blatantly anti-American,” he said. “Our regulators should go there and say: ‘If it’s not in the interests of the United States, we’re not doing it’.”
- “I think any American president, secretary of Treasury, regulator or other leader would want strong, healthy global financial firms and not think that somehow we should give up that position in the world and that would be good for your country,” said Mr Dimon. “If they think that’s good for the country then we have a different view on how the economy operates, how the world operates.”
- “We’re all simultaneously working on understanding and complying with Basel III rules, liquidity rules, operating capital rules, derivatives rules, Volcker rules [that ban proprietary trading], cash flow rules, Durbin rules [which limit debit card fees charged to retailers], disclosure rules, consumer rules. I do feel all of these things together are slowing recovery, but I can’t prove it.”
- “I think that market participants are overwhelmed by the amount of regulation and change being imposed at one time,” says Mr Dimon. “What the policymakers should have done is say, ‘let’s take the really important issues – particularly the ones that are really important to recovery – let’s get those fixed. Let’s put the other ones to one side.’”
- But we are not there. “My guess is the legacy litigation is going to go on for three to 10 years because every securitisation is different,” says Mr Dimon. “We are geared up and we’ve hired some top experts that do nothing but this. We’ve put away billions of dollars [in reserves against losses] already. It’s an unfortunate drag on the company but we’re still looking at the mortgage business as a very important business going forward and these are legacy problems that will have to work themselves out.”
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Video - Cenk on the Federal Reserve's Secret Loans - Aug. 26, 2011
- "I thought JP Morgan didn't need a bailout..."
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Background stories:
Jamie Dimon Questions Bernanke On New Bank Rules, Complains About TOO MUCH Regulation, Becomes Wall Street Hero (VIDEO)
Simon Johnson Destroys The Myth Of Jamie Dimon's Bernanke Complaint (Crocodile Tears Fooled No One)
Jamie Dimon Laughs About Buying Bear Stearns For $2 Bucks Per Share With Taxpayer Help (Charlie Rose Video)