JP Morgan Severely Understated Losses in 2012

businessinsider.com

JPMorgan CEO Jaime Dimon almost looks chagrined in the above photo, as well he should.  The company lost $6.2 in trading losses last year and cut Dimon's salary in half.  The poor man wound up with a measly $11.5 million.  As the captain of the ship that hit the London Whale iceberg, he should have received nothing, in this blogger's estimation.  In fact, JPMorgan should take his salary until he legally recoups those losses for investors.  But wait, he can't.   Dimon doesn't work miracles, and his lax oversight illustrates the problem with large financial behemoths.   Banks give regulators false information when losses occur, and everyone except the executives lose money.  No one human in worth the $23 million dollar salary Dimon should have received in 2012, and he still prospers while trusting investors lose massive amounts.

JPMorgan reminds me of the story "The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf."  The bank's oft repeated apologies for losses fall on deaf ears because the public has heard the excuse too many times before.  The Senate panel that heard testimony about the scandal last Thursday blasted bank executives for misleading regulators and investors and questioned them Friday, pressuring them to "come clean."  Senator Carl Levin led the subcommittee as its chairman and labeled some of the bank's failures as "egregious."

I fail to understand why anyone would invest in a hedge fund because the only people to emerge unscathed are those who sell them and executives who enjoy annual salaries most people don't earn in a lifetime.  Remember those brave souls who started the Occupy Wall Street movement?  The leaders understood the machinations of those organizations and the effect their dealings have on the average citizen.  These behemoths bear responsibility, in part, for the widening gap between the richest and the poorest and the squeeze on those in the middle.

Ham on Wry calls for action on the part of investors to limit the compensation of CEO's and other top executives who gain great wealth at the expense of people who can ill afford to lose their money.  These so-called leaders always emerge relatively unscathed when these huge losses occur.  That must change.  We need honesty and integrity in the people who lead public companies and have suffered myriad examples of highly-paid executives reaping benefits when their organizations fail.  Readers can demand change by placing their faith in financial institutions that have proven their worth and withdrawing money from those that don't.  Do it before another meltdown occurs!