Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General
For years I’ve used the phrase “Frankenbanks” in my articles – those global banking behemoths created as a result of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 that allow the co-mingling of FDIC insured mom and pop savings accounts with investment banking activities that blow up things using the mom and pop savings accounts leveraged to the hilt. Now the U.S. Senate is making my case for me on the use of Frankenbanks as an appropriate soubriquet.
If we date the run up to the financial crisis as beginning in the summer of 2007, which the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency does, it is more than five years since Congress has been studying why Wall Street is very adept at blowing up things but adept at not much else – like its main job of fairly allocating capital to new companies that will produce the good jobs of the future. Just yesterday, the U.S. Senate posted the following announcement:
“The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing, ‘JPMorgan Chase Whale Trades: A Case History of Derivatives Risks and Abuses,’ on Friday, March 15, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., in Room G-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
“The Subcommittee will examine matters relating to credit derivative trades made by the JPMorgan Chase Chief Investment Office. The Subcommittee expects to issue a Subcommittee staff report in conjunction with the hearing summarizing its investigative findings and recommendations. Witnesses will include representatives from JPMorgan Chase and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. A witness list will be available Wednesday, March 13, 2013.”
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase
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