Sure the economy is still a mess, unemployment is high, civil services and pensions are being slashed, a record number of people are on food stamps, and families are losing homes. But Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, does his best to distract the United States from these unpleasant realities.
Here's Jamie
After losing $2.2 billion (and rapidly rising1) in mark-to-market losses in credit derivatives, the multi-trillion dollar global product JPMorgan created and claims it manages well. Everyone is guessing about JPMorgan's ultimate losses. The Wall Street Journal reported on May 18 losses could potentially be as much as $5 billion, or more than 25% of JPMorgan's profits last year, but no one knows for certain, and ultimate losses could be smaller or much greater.
Dimon had the perfect response on May 13th's Meet the Press to straight man David Gregory's question: "How did this happen?"
"First of all, there was one warning signal — if you look back from today, there were other red flags. That particular red flag — you know, we made a mistake, we got very defensive and people started justifying everything we did. You know, the benefit in life is to say, 'Maybe you made a mistake, let's dig deep.' And the mistake had been brewing for a while, so it wasn't just any one thing."2
That's so funny I'll bet President Obama blew coffee out of his nose.
Keep reading: Janet Tavakoli: Jamie Dimon: JPMorgan's Chief is the World's Funniest Financier (Update).
