Courtesy of Pam Martens
Jamie Dimon Testifying at Senate Banking Hearing June 13, 2012 on the London Whale Scandal
The illusions of the Trump era – spun as making America great again, while sluicing more and more wealth to the one percent – has revived citizen interest in what it would actually take to restore fairness and integrity to the nation.
The first place to look is how to restructure the American corporation so that it is no longer poisoning our campaign finance system, our election outcomes, and perverting the legislative process in Washington. The majority of Congress now works for its corporate paymasters. That has resulted in perverse economic outcomes across the national landscape that have, in turn, created the greatest wealth inequality in America since the late 1920s.
While reforming the way political campaigns are financed in America has received a great deal of attention, far too little attention has been given to the grotesque disfiguration of far too many corporate Boards in America.
Take JPMorgan Chase for example. According to its 2017 proxy statement, one of its Board members, Laban P. Jackson, Jr., received a total of $532,500 in compensation in 2016 for serving as a Director of the bank. Of that amount, $115,000 was paid in cash for service on the Board of JPMorgan Chase; $225,000 was in an annual stock award that must be retained until he retires from the Board; $110,000 was paid for serving as a Director of J.P. Morgan Securities plc, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase in the United Kingdom; along with other fees including a payment of $2500 (paid to all Board members) when they attend a “Specific Purpose Committee” meeting.
According to the 2017 proxy statement, JPMorgan’s lavishly paid Board, which currently receives $75,000 annually in cash and $225,000 in stock will get a 25 percent increase in cash compensation, moving to $100,000 while the stock award moves from an annual $225,000 to $250,000.
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